The Baseball and Softball Club Mainz Athletics 1988 e.V., commonly referred to as Mainz Athletics, is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

baseball and softball club located in the city of

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

. The Athletics, along with Regensburg Legionäre, is one of the largest clubs in the Baseball-Bundesliga Süd in terms of membership, claiming to have hundreds of active players. The club has played in the Baseball-Bundesliga for more than two decades, winning the German Championship in the 2007 and 2016 season.

History

The team was established in 1988 as a split of the Mainz Rangers and played its first games in 1989 under the name Mainz Athletics. This name was chosen because, amongst the founders of the club, none of them had the

Oakland Athletics The Oakland Athletics (often referred to as the A's) are an American professional baseball team based in Oakland, California. The Athletics compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The te ...

as their favorite team, so the nickname Athletics was selected.

Season by Season Performance (1st Bundesliga)

Ballpark

The Mainz Athletics played their home games at Sandflora Ballpark between 1988 and 2010. The field is located between the neighborhoods of

Mombach Mombach, with 13,875 inhabitants (Apr. 2021), is a borough in the northwest corner of Mainz, Germany. Mombach can be reached via Mainz-innenstadt (downtown) or Bundesautobahn 643. Location Mombach is located on the southern (left) bank of the ...

and

Gonsenheim Gonsenheim is a borough in the northwest corner of Mainz, Germany. With about 25,000 inhabitants, it is the second-most populated borough of Mainz, before Oberstadt and after Neustadt. History Protohistory The history of Gonsenheim reaches bac ...

, an area that was previously the grounds of an American military installation. Sandflora comprised a baseball and a softball field, both of which were occupied by the Athletics. Since the fields overlap, games could be played on both fields at the same time. The Bundesliga All-Star Game and the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

were held at the Sandflora several times. The field also hosted the 1999 Junior European Championship and in the inaugural 2002 Softball All Star Game. The field lies in a residential neighborhood, the because field can become loud during games, the Athletics had to find a new place to play. In 2011 the club played their first game in a new ballpark along the Hartmühlenweg, about 500 meters east of the former facility. Official page for new park File:Sandflora Baseball Park 2.jpg, Sandflora Baseball Park, stands overlooking third base line, April 2010 File:Sandflora Baseball Park 3.jpg, Sandflora Baseball Park, April 2010 File:Sandflora Baseball Park 4.jpg, Sandflora Baseball Park, Athletics mural, April 2010 File:Sandflora Baseball Park 1.jpg, Sandflora Baseball Park, baseball field in background, softball field in foreground, April 2010

References

External links

Official Page (German)
{{coord, 50.009, N, 8.226, E, source:dewiki, display=title Baseball teams in Germany

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

Organisations based in Mainz