The Mannheim Tornados are a baseball and softball club from

Mannheim Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's 2 ...

Baden-Württemberg Baden-Württemberg (; ), commonly shortened to BW or BaWü, is a German state () in Southwest Germany, east of the Rhine, which forms the southern part of Germany's western border with France. With more than 11.07 million inhabitants across a ...

. Founded in 1975, it is the oldest continuing baseball club in

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 ...

. The first men's team plays in the first division of the

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 ...

and has won 11 championships, the most of any club to reach the top tier of German baseball. The team won every championship between 1984 and 1989. However, the Tornados have not won a championship since 1997, though they perennially make the playoffs.

Club Structure

The full club consists of 12 teams: *1st Men's, plays in Bundesliga's 1st Division *Men's Regional *Association Men's League *1st Women's *Association Women's League *Juniors (16–18 years) *Youth (13–15 years) *Student (9–12 years) *Junior Women (17–19 years) *T-Ball (4–8 years) *2 recreational teams (Slow Pitch) *Mixed Team League Softball Fast Pitch Each member pays an annual club fee, ranging from €55 for ordinary members to €170 for active adult members. The club also set up a separate organization, The Friends of the Baseball Club Tornados Mannheim eV. It is classified as a charitable organization by the City of Mannheim, and has an annual membership fee of €24.

Season by Season Performance (1st Bundesliga)

Retired Numbers

The team has five retired numbers: *30 - Frank Jäger, played 390 games with the Tornados from 1984 to 2000, batting .314 lifetime *22 - Bernard Pickett, known as "Yogi," played 213 games with the Tornados and batted .413 lifetime *20 -

Stephan Jäger Stephan Jäger (born 30 May 1989), also spelled as Stephan Jaeger, is a German professional golfer who plays on the PGA Tour. He has won six tournaments on the second tier Korn Ferry Tour in the United States. Amateur career Jäger played colleg ...

, hit .425 for the Tornados over 194 games *35 - Eddy Polanco, hit .413 over 221 games for the Tornados *44 - Klaus Knüttel, played 498 games in his Tornados jersey, pitched 1121 strikeouts in 1129 innings. Also a power hitter, he had 97 home runs, 20 triples, and 9 doubles during his career.

References

External links

Official Site

Roberto Clemente Field
{{Bundesliga (baseball) Baseball teams in Germany