A hands-on baseball superstar – Sports – News

Munich.It’s very relaxed. The superstar from the USA is approachable. Casual conversations away from the action are just as common as plenty of time for autographs. The second official visit of baseball ace Max Kepler to Germany is a lot different than when he returned home for the first time in 2019. At that time, there were a number of media events on the program. The trip was tightly timed. The return to Kepler’s adopted home of Regensburg in front of hundreds of enthusiastic fans was accompanied by several TV teams. There was no time for private talk in between.

#In Eglfing, the home of Bundesliga club München-Haar Disciples, the so-called “MLB Masterclass” is very well received. Two days earlier, Kepler and Solbach stopped in Berlin. For the event in Bavaria last Saturday, the young baseball players travel from Dortmund or Karlsruhe to see their idols up close. Hitting, throwing, catching: everything under the guidance of US professionals. The atmosphere is relaxed. Many former top German baseball players – now fathers of baseball enthusiastic children – meet for a kind of family get-together.

#First meeting in the selection

#Kepler and Solbach get along brilliantly. This carries over to those present. The two best German baseball players have known each other for a long time. For the first time the Berlin Kepler and the Dormagener Solbach ran into each other at the youth country cup. Solbach played for North Rhine-Westphalia. Kepler from Regensburg by choice – at the time a student of the legionaries’ sports boarding school – wore the jersey of the Bayern team. “We didn’t really know each other back then,” reveals Kepler. It wasn’t until Solbach signed his first of four professional contracts in the USA in 2011 that the friendship between the outfielder and the pitcher began. For two years, the duo stood together in the Minnesota Twins’ farm system. Then the paths parted.

#At least on the field, because the friendship never broke off. “We meet in the offseason, have already been on vacation together, and we talk on the phone a lot,” says Kepler. They were properly welded together at the time of the first lockdown. Both spent the quarantine together in Minneapolis. “I sat in the car for 27 hours to drive to Minnesota,” says Solbach, who most recently came under the Major League (Triple A) level in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization.

# “Max and I tried to train as best we could every day. We went to the park to throw and always had to look for a gym that was just open, ”remembers the Rhinelander. “It was a funny and interesting time at the same time. There were also political problems in Minneapolis. Fortunately, Markus came along. It was easier that way, ”explains Kepler.

#Infectious good mood

#During this winter break, the German baseball figureheads are on the road together in Germany. Your good mood in Munich is contagious. And probably all children go home with a laugh.