The Atlantan Greg Frady hits the ball out of the park on both sides of the Atlantic

The German National Baseball Team struck out in 2003. They lost every game in the European Championship and were relegated to the B-Pool. The German Sports Federation gave them one year to turn around, otherwise funding would be cut. With that deadline hanging over its head, the German Baseball and Softball Federation had to act quickly in its search for a new head coach...

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Coach Greg Frady (left) talks to one of his German players

(© DBV)

After considering several national candidates, the American Greg Frady entered the picture. He had a successful track record of turning around sports teams three times before and when coach Jesco Veisz flew to Orlando where Frady was associate head coach at the University of Central Florida, he knew that they had their man. “He was the best we could get,“ said Jürgen Elsishans, Vice President of the German Baseball and Softball Federation.

When Greg Frady moved to Germany, not only did the beautiful surroundings of the Main River seem like a fairytale to him, also the attitude and the hard work of the players were a dream come true. In just 8 months, he made a new beginning and revamped the team. “I have some German heritage on my father’s side and I am German in many ways – straightforward and to the point,“ Frady says about himself. “Germans love leadership and I told the team that if they follow me, they will have great success.“

A prediction that proved correct sooner than expected when the German team brought home the Gold from the B-Pool European Championship in 2004 and rose back to the A-Pool. “We had clearly hit rock bottom the year before,“ says player Mirko Heid. “Only through Coach Frady’s absolute commitment, unlimited optimism, and his unprecedented ability to motivate every single one of us, did we survive and thrive.“

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The German National Baseball Team

(© DBV)

With that success as a confidence booster, Frady’s team went on to place 4th in the European Championships in 2005 and 2007, and qualified for the first time for the World Cup in 2007 and then again in 2009. In 2008, his squad came just two games shy of qualifying for the Beijing Olympics. Player Kai Gronauer remembers, “Five years ago, it was just a dream for us to play in a world tournament. And to play the best baseball teams so close and even win against some of them – just unbelievable!“

Coaching the German National Team alone would be plenty of a challenge for most coaches but not so for Frady. In 2006, he was also named head coach of the Panthers, the baseball team at Georgia State University in Atlanta. Last year, in his second season, he set a new school record for victories in a season. The team opened with eight straight wins and the players went on to break several individual records as well.

Sharing his time between Atlanta and Germany takes a lot of careful planning. Frady stays in Georgia for the Panthers’ season from February through June. Then he packs his bags and makes several trips to Germany to reconnect with the established players and to try out younger kids he might consider for the squad. This summer, he will take the German team to Canada and then to Regensburg in the fall. For the rest of the year, Frady is lucky to have three assistant coaches stationed across Germany who report to him weekly about his players and their teams.

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(© GSU)

Asked about the differences in coaching GSU vs. the German National Team, Frady responds, “I coach very smart kids on both sides of the Atlantic. They are hard-working and focused. The only difference is that in Germany the students have more academic time constraints and we have to plan a year ahead to get them off university to participate in the games.“

And from the German players’ perspective? Being whipped into shape by an American coach goes beyond his initial „star power“ of being associated with the birthplace of baseball. “In the US, kids grow up with a passion for baseball, the whole country shares a love for the game,“ says Kai Gronauer. “Coach Frady conveys this enthusiasm in a natural, effortless way. He lives and breathes baseball and is therefore better able to inspire us to give our best at all times.“

Greg Frady has clearly developed a passion for Germany. When we first meet him, he is standing in front of a map of the country, enthusiastically sharing his knowledge about his second home, showing us where his players live and which cities he has visited. Hearing him talk, his excitement, his passion for the game and his care for his team are evident and very contagious. Clearly Frady’s success does not only stem from his extraordinary coaching skills but also from his desire to understand the culture and the background of the young athletes. A trait that earns him high marks from his players who not only consider him their coach but also a friend. “Training a kid to play baseball is great. But there is more to that. If I am done with them, they better be ready to lead – in business, in the community. And I can see that in many of my retired players,“ Frady says proudly.

But how can baseball establish itself against the German favorite? “Not everyone can play soccer,“ says Frady. There are many different stories how kids in Germany choose baseball. Many of them see MLB on television. One of his players, Tim Henkenjohann, went to the US for vacation, brought back a glove and started playing. There are baseball clubs all over Germany now, often smartly located in cities that do not have a big soccer club.

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(© DBV)

Several of the German players who retired from the national team went on to sign with MLB teams here in the US. Frady hopes that this success will also resonate with the German fans and make the sport more popular back at home. Just like Dirk Nowitzky and basketball. Kai Gronauer, one of those players, smiles about that comparison. “I am not quite at that level, but I would love to be the first German to win the National Series,“ he says.

The 2009 World Cup will be held on home turf, in Regensburg, this coming September. Germany shares a group with the United States, China and Venezuela. Questioned about his prognosis, Coach Frady laughs and says, “Goodie. Very difficult. Somehow we have never been in an easy group and are usually the worst team on paper. But we have always found a way to win.“ Frady will not be tied down to a specific goal for the tournament but says that he tries to focus his players on each individual game. “We have to play well on that day; it does not matter if we might have lost the day before,“ he says. The squad is hoping to represent Germany in the best way possible and build the pride of the German fans in their team. Mirko Heid adds, “Coach always tells us that if we play to our strengths, we can win against any team.“

The German National Baseball Team was just listed by the International Baseball Federation #19 in the Top 20. “It is incredible how far the team has come in only five years and that we were able to gain so much respect,“ says Frady. “We went from almost dropping baseball in 2004 to just barely missing the Olympics last year. But my players and I strive to be ranked even higher. We are working on it…“