by Matthias Ondracek
Donald Lutz has ended his career. The German baseball pioneer was said goodbye to the Brisbane Bandits in Australia this week. The Hessian has been active there since the end of his MLB career in 2014. Lutz became the first German in Major League history in 2013. On April 29, the former international made his debut for the Cincinnati Reds in the game against the St. Louis Cardinals. Overall, the 34-year-old completed 62 games in the best baseball league in the world. His biggest milestone was the first MLB home run by a German on May 12, 2013 against the Milwaukee Brewers, American Mother’s Day.
Lutz only began his career as a 14-year-old with the Friedberg Braves. In 2005, the left-handed power hitter played for the Bad Homburg Hornets in the 2nd Bundesliga for the first time. After the 2006 season, his path led him to the Regensburg Legionnaires’ sports boarding school. “Without the Regensburg boarding school none of this would have been possible. For that I am eternally grateful. Just like the Friedberg Braves and the Bad Homburg Hornets, who got me started,” says Lutz. The outfielder and first baseman celebrated winning the German championship with the Upper Palatinate in 2008. Lutz’s professional career began in the same year. In his very first spring training session, the Hessian made people sit up and take notice with a cycle. From then on things went steeply uphill for the German baseball exotic in the homeland of the sport. With the Dayton Dragons (A) and the Pensacola Blue Wahoos (AA), Lutz broke all records in six years in the minor leagues. Among other things, he managed two more cycles.
During the 2013 season, Lutz was eventually called up to the MLB team for the Cincinnati Reds. Under the coaching icon Dusty Baker, “Big Lutz”, as the current master coach of the Houston Astros christened him, was the first German in almost 150 years of history to gain experience in the US professional league. A year later, a serious elbow injury ended the baseball pioneer’s MLB career abruptly. After a short trip to the Bravos de León in Mexico, Lutz found a new home in Australia. With the Brisbane Bandits, Lutz won the championship in the professional league ABL four times. When he first won the title in 2016, the German was named MVP of the final series. In the 2017–18 season, the Slugger tied the league’s season record for home runs (16). After the Bandits lost in the semifinals to the Perth Heat, Lutz announced his departure from active baseball. Overall, Lutz completed 962 games in his career. The globetrotter hit home runs on five continents.
Friedberger played for the German national team from 2007 to 2019. The offensive specialist was on the field for Germany almost 40 times in the junior and men’s teams. “I learned a lot about honor and pride from playing with the national team. The honor of representing my country has always been something very special for me,” explains Lutz. “For me, the performances with Germany always meant meeting a lot of good friends. And being on the field with my brother Sascha made it a thousand times cooler. It was the only time we could see each other for many years,” Lutz continues. Among other things, the Australian by choice took part in the 2011 Men’s World Cup in Panama and the World Baseball Classic Qualifiers in Regensburg (2012) and Mexicali (2016). The former Bundesliga player made his last appearance in “Black-Red-Gold” at the 2019 European Championships in Bonn. Three years later, Lutz is now finally hanging up his glove.
Photo: Thomas Schönenborn
2023-08-13 18:31:03
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