The Berlin Sluggers, officially named "Sluggers eV Berlin", is a
baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...
club founded on October 1, 1985 in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, making it the oldest baseball club in Berlin. The first men's team played a few seasons in the first division of the German
Baseball Bundesliga
The Baseball-Bundesliga is the professional elite competition for the sport of baseball in Germany. In it, the men's German championship is determined annually. Like most European sports leagues, the Bundesliga uses a system of promotion and ...
in the early nineties and was promoted again for the 2011 season. However, though the team qualified to advance to the first division in 2006, it was unable to do so due to financial constraints.
The Sluggers play their home games at Paul Rusch Stadium in the
Buckow neighborhood of Berlin. It is the only baseball-only field in Berlin.
Max Kepler-Rozycki, who signed with the
Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...
in 2009 for a signing bonus of $750,000, the standing record for a European player, is a former Slugger.
Club structure
The full club consists of 6 teams:
*1st Men's Baseball (Sluggers I), Bundesliga's 2nd Division
*2nd Men's Baseball (Sluggers II),
Regional League, North East Division
*3rd Men's Baseball (Sluggers III),
Bezirksliga Berlin
*Junior (15–18 years old), Junior League
*Youth (13–15 years old), Youth League
*Students (7–12 years old), Berlin League
Additionally, the club is developing a team for children 4 to 7 years old, which it dubs the "Mini Sluggers." The club claims 85 members as of 2010 and charges a membership fee of €48 for members under 18 and €57 for members over 18 years of age.
[Berlin Sluggers: Official Website. Accessed December 23, 2020. http://www.berlinsluggers.de/verein.htm ]
References
External links
*
Baseball teams in Germany
{{europe-baseball-team-stub