Off to the new season: The Wiener Neustädter Diving Ducks traditionally start the Bundesliga with a Friday Night Game against the Traiskirchen Grasshoppers. Game one will be without long-time top performer Ferdinand Obed, who left for Vorarlberg and the Dornbirn Indians for work-related reasons. But it will also be game one with Henry Lebourn. The New Zealander will be used as a catcher and infielder by the Wiener Neustädter Enten. The 23-year-old, who plays for Bayside Westhaven in his home country, is the first “Kiwi” to play for the Ducks. This is made possible by the so-called Working Holiday Visa.
The club is no longer looking, the players are applying
“The visa is an ideal breeding ground for worldwide baseball exchange. That’s a legal way to get young people to Wiener Neustadt,” says Ducks official Martin Zoufal: “This will make us Ducks the international melting pot we want to be. In the meantime, we have also developed a standing that we can choose from different applicants and no longer have to actively search.”
The impact Leabourn can have on the Ducks game will first become apparent this weekend. The goal of the season is the playoff. “It used to be easier to achieve that,” says Zoufal. With the withdrawal of Attnang-Puchheim and Feldkirch, the league shrank from nine to seven teams. Instead of two divisions, there is only one table. Instead of a quarter-final, the postseason starts this year with a semi-final. “It’s easier to finish in the top eight in nine teams than in the top four in seven teams,” Zoufal calculates: “In the beginning it’s about executing the basics anyway – not making any mistakes, no balls throw. We want to act as a collective and get through the season in a sustainable way,” if the play-offs are feasible. And as you know, anything is possible there.
