Photo by Mark Adamsbaum

The Hungarian Baseball and Softball Federation (MOBSSZ) hosted a very illustrious guest at the American School in Nagykovacsi, as Simon Gühring joined us this past weekend during our Winter Training Clinic. The captain of the German National Team, was invited to Hungary by MOBSSZ to help making baseball more popular in the country. The player/coach of Heidenheim Heideköpfe, one of the TOP10 teams in Europe, was available for this interview after his first day here.

-Is this your first time in Hungary?

-Yes, unfortunately I never had the chance to visit this country, but so far I like it a lot. So far I’ve only seen Budapest at night, and it’s constantly raining, but I like the Palace and the Chainbridge a lot.

-You came as a guest coach. How did you get in touch with the Hungarian Federation?

-My brother, David, was here in November and he met Terry Lingenhoel. He gave my contact information, and after a few emails he convinced me to come over and help train players during the clinic. I worked with the Junior and Senior National teams on Saturday and will work with other interested Junior and Senior players on Sunday. Unfortunately I cannot stay longer for the rest of the clinic, because my family and work needs me back home. The facility is beautiful. Fully equipped gym, swimming pool…

-Tell us something about the beginnings. When did you first grab a bat?

-An American Christian team played in Mannheim, when I was 11, and their coach gave me one. That was the first time I had seen baseball. Half a year later, a first division team held its training camp in my city of Leonberg.  That’s when I first played the game. My brother asked me to go to the open practice with him. He chose soccer later on. I also played soccer, when I was younger, but ended up playing baseball. My first team was Leonberg.  We played in the fourth division, but all of a sudden a shopping mall was built on the field. That’s how I ended up in Heidenheim.

-Afterwards you signed to the States. How did that happen?

-At the age of 18 we were in South Africa, where American scouts gave me a contract. I played in one of the Milwaukee Brewers Minor League affiliate teams: the Arizona Brewers in the Rookie League. I was the third German born player after the country’s reunion to play in baseball’s home country. There was another German guy, the first one, who also played with the Brewers organization and Tim Henkenjohann, he played with the Minnesota Twins.

-Speaking of the Twins, Ron Gardenhire, their manager was also born in Germany. Do the Germans know who he is? How popular is baseball?

-Gardenhire? Really? I didn’t know that! It’s not that big of a sport, I guess only a handful of people would know him. Basketball just became popular, when Dirk Nowitzki got to the NBA. Maybe we are going to have to wait till someone gets to the Majors. The really popular sports are soccer and handball, where there is always something happening on the field. We need more players like Henkenjohann. It is really hard to find young players.  They are only interested in national sports, where they can get the big money.

INFO CARD:

Name: Simon Gühring
Born: 14.07.1983. Leonberg
Positions: Catcher (sometimes Outfielder)
Clubs (1994-2010): Leonberg, Heidenheim (German), AZL Brewers (American), Sportvereniging ADO (Dutch), Heidenheim
Marital Status: married to Sarai. They have an 18 month old daughter, their second child is to come in April.
Favorite MLB team: Seattle Mariners
Favorite MLB player: Josh Hamilton (Texas Rangers)
Favorite MLB catcher: Ivan Rodriguez (Washington Nationals), Brian McCann (Atlanta Braves) and Joe Mauer (Minnesota Twins)

Photo by Mark Adamsbaum

-Does Simon Gühring has the chance to break this barrier?

-I don’t think so. I’m already 26, but there are a lot of young talented players. This year Kai Gronauer was invited by the New York Mets to Spring Training and there is a kid from Regensburg, Max Kepler-Rozycki, who got signed by the Twins for $800.000. That is a lot of money.

-Back to the Brewers. Did you study as well or just play baseball? If I’m right you graduated at the National Academy of Sports Medicine.

-Studying only came afterwards. When I played baseball I only lived for that. Usually I woke up at 5:30 am and I spent the whole day on the field.

-You spent one season in the Netherlands, and returned to Germany in 2005. Has anything changed since you left?

-When I returned no. The real change came 2 years later. The quality of the game has improved a lot. The playing level is getting closer to the Big Leagues and they don’t only have a chance to compete at the college level but they might even have the chance to compete in the Show. In the past getting a visa always meant a big problem. It was really hard to get one, but now that has changed. The players from Germany, and other European countries can easily get in there.

-Let’s talk about the National Team. The head coach Greg Frady, led the team from the B pool all the way to the world’s elite.

-Frady is doing a tremendous job. He started when we were really down, our fame was broken. Not everybody wanted to play on the national team, and then he came along. He made us a team, and led us to the World Cup in just 2 years. I think he is the best coach who has ever worked in Germany.

-Germany will host the 2010 European Championship. Do you see any chance to get the first Gold medal, against the Netherlands?

-Definitely! The Dutch are really good, but we also have a great team. We have to give our best on all the games. Everything is possible in baseball. We can beat the Netherlands! We have to play perfect against them, on all parts of the game, especially the defense.

-Just like you did last year. After returning from major surgery, hitting a three-run home run off the very first pitch than a grand slam in your next at bat in game four. Finally, hitting another one in the decisive game 5 of the German Finals.

-I just returned from my surgery, I could barely jog. I knew I had to hit it a long way, otherwise I wouldn’t reach first base. They could even throw me out from the outfield. The real big deal was not the homeruns I hit, but the fact that I was able to play at all. A recovery from such surgery takes usually 6-10 weeks, and I was on the field just 4 weeks after the surgery. I’m really thankful to God. I truly believe that He helped me! Even the doctors said it was miraculous.

-Do you have any advice to the Hungarian youth players?

-Work hard, play hard, but always be fair. The whole sport is about professionalism. Not many Hungarian players could reach that level yet, that takes time. If they start to work harder and better they might get the chance to become professionals. But I can only say to have fun at what you are doing. This is a great sport, to learn sportsmanship and to learn to respect others. Someday they may get the chance to be part of the national team, which is the biggest honor a player can have.

Mérnyei Péter

Simon Gühring will have a Hungarian pitcher in his way this season. János Daróczi (interview coming soon), whose team got to the first division this past season. Gühring knows him: “Of course I know him! He plays for Neuenburg. They were in the second division last year, but I have met him in a camp in Rimini (Italy), which was organized by UPI. Next year we are going to face each other on the field.”

The newly formed Hungarian Junior National Team recently finished a successful ten-day baseball camp that was the first of its kind in Hungarian baseball for this age group.

The team started on Wednesday, July 22 with their trip to IYBST tournament in Hluboka. The tournament offered a guaranteed four games, possible six games to each team that would qualify for the semi-finals. Although there were only five teams in the tournament and reaching the semi-finals seemed like a possible goal for our team, it turned out that the competition was a little too strong for us at this point.

Besides our team, the hosting team from Hluboka, the American high-school team “Purpose Driven” as well as the U-15 and U-16 national teams of the Czech Baseball Federation competed in this tournament. Especially the Czech teams had an impressive record: the U-15 team just returned from the European Championship with the Bronze Medal and the U-16 was getting ready for the U-16 Word Championship in Chinese Taipei later in August.

In the first two games against the Americans and the Czech U-16 it was obvious that our team was missing the necessary fine tuning to compete on such a baseball level; no real surprise though since we only had the chance to practice twice with the team prior this trip. Both games ended in high losses (1:10 / 2:10).

Games three and four saw another Hungarian team that was eager to win its first game. In both games the players played hard and took an early lead. Nevertheless, a lack of experience of holding onto the lead, combined with a few fielding/mental errors let the possible wins slip away. The games ended 7:11 and 9:11.

Although we finished 5^th and therefore missed the semi-finals, we were still was able to bring one title home: Winner of the Homerun Derby.

Victor Domjan from the Szentendre Sleepwalkers hit two homeruns in the competition and finished ahead of everybody else. Well Done, Victor!

After finishing the tournament, the whole squad travelled straight to Erd, where the 5-day camp started on Monday morning.

On Monday and Tuesday we had two training sessions each day and that gave the team plenty of time to work on those baseball weaknesses that were exposed during the tournament. Additional baseball tactical sessions completed the training days.

From Wednesday to Friday on we were joined by the American high-school team “Pupose Driven” team that we already met in Hluboka earlier.

Besides working out on the field with the “Purpose Driven” players and coaches each day, we also played 7-inning games each of those remaining three days.

Although we were unable to beat this very experienced team – that by the way won the Hluboka tournament for the second year in a row – we gave them a great fight, only loosing 1:11, 4-7, 6-8. Especially in the last two games we looked much better than during our first games back in Hluboka. We played hard, communicated with each other and supported each other on the field and off the bench!

Overall the first junior national team camp was a great success. All players improved a great deal over the ten-day stretch, and although everybody was very tired at the end of this camp, we were also very satisfied with the outcome.

Next years goal will be to compete in the European Qualifier tournament with this age group. Although some players will move on to the senior level, the core of the team will return in 2010 and will be more prepared to compete on the European stage.

On Sunday, 30.09.09 the 2009 Danube Cup was played in Vienna, hosted by the Austrian Baseball Federation.

In a well organized tournament, the hosting team from Austria was able to secure wins against Slovakia and Hungary and take this year’s title.

The first game of the day between Slovakia and Austria turned out to be a game dominated by both pitching staffs and ended in a 4:2 win for Austria after 9 innings.

The second game of the day, between our Hungarian team and the Slovakian selection became a real thriller game. After taking an 8:2 lead after 5 1/2, the Hungarian team seemed to be on the right track to beating their long time rivals, but timely hitting combined with a couple of BB let the Slovakians tie the game in the bottom of the 6th inning. Good defense from both teams for the following 7! innings took this 8:8 tie into a 14th innings. Hungary was able to score one more run and took the 9:8 lead in the top of the 14th inning. They only needed 3 outs to finish this 4 hour and 45 minute game in their favor, but the pitching was not able to keep up. Two walks and a long base hit to centerfield let the Slovakians scored the tying and the winning run for team Slovakia.

Although game two for the Hungarian team started only 20 minutes later, the team was able to play six good innings against a very good Austrian team. The score was 6:4 for team Austria after five innings, when suddenly the Hungarian defense got tired. Austria was able to take advantage of this situation and scored 11 runs in the top of the sixth inning to take a save 17:4 lead. Hungary, unable to fight back at this point, had to let the Austrians take the win after 7 innings with a final score of 17:5.

By the end of the second game at around 8:30pm, team Hungary had played almost 7 1/2 hours of continues baseball.

Although team Hungary was not able to take a win in this year’s Danube Cup, their performance was by far much better than in previous years and shows great improvement from a team that finished fourth in last year’s CEB Euro qualifier.

The Hungarian Baseball Federation would like to send big “Danke” to the Austrian Federation for hosting a great baseball event!

Results:
Slovakia – Austria 2:4 (9 innings)
Hungary – Slovakia 9:10 (14 innings)
Austria – Hungary 17:5 (7 innings)

From Sunday, July 12 until Saturday, July 18 the Cadet National Team came together in Erd to prepare for the 2009 Baseball Grant Prix in Brno from August 21-23, their main event of the year.

Sixteen players from seven different clubs in Hungary were selected for this year’s Cadet National Team at the national try outs earlier in May.

The players arrived on Sunday afternoon and checked into the OM guest house that became our training centre for the entire week.

After the official welcome from Head Coach Ingo Gottwald on Monday morning, the first training sessions started at 10.00 on the Erd baseball field.

The national team coaching staff – Terry Lingenhoel, Mihaly Bankuti, Andras Radacsi and Ingo Gottwald – received additional support by guest coaches Vince Smith, Brian Miracle and James Tan from the United States and Canada, who came to Hungary on an assignment through the Christian Organisations Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) as well as OM. Vince and Brian are current college baseball players in the USA while James is an experienced Little League coach in Canada.

Our general daily schedule looked something like this:

Team breakfast around 8am, then practice at the field from 9.00-12.00 followed by a lunch break and free time until the early afternoon. Twice the kids and coaches used this afternoon break to relax at the local pool.

In the later afternoon, a one-hour theoretical session about character building and baseball tactics was held before the team left to the field again for batting practice and the evening practice game.

After the games finished around 19.45, the team returned to the OM training centre to have its team dinner.

After dinner the kids had the chance to watch recorded baseball games or movies on the big screen or just relax.

During the training sessions the players worked on all elements of the game: base running, pitching, fielding, hitting. The team was usually split in smaller groups that then were working with two or more coaches at the same time.

Although we were blessed with great baseball weather throughout the whole week, temperatures reached up to 35 degrees during the training sessions. Many water breaks needed to be made but nevertheless, the players never complained or slowed down the intensity of the drills and activities.

“All players worked hard throughout the whole week and we coaches are very proud of them. It was sometimes hard to keep up the concentration but the kids handled it great”, said head coach Ingo at the award night at the end of the camp. “Everybody was a fighter and therefore deserves to be called a national team player.”

During the course of the week, players and coaches spend around 28 hours on the baseball field and another six hours in class room sessions.

A great thank you needs to be said to our three guest coaches as well as our additional kitchen staff of four chefs that helped to make this camp a great success.

Watch a clip that OM press volunteer Emily Grimsly made about the Cadet camp. Thanks a lot, Emily!

Sorry, this entry is only available in Magyar.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Magyar.

Sorry, this entry is only available in Magyar.