Baseball in Gauting: Indians hope to return to the first division – Starnberg

“Blow the ball away. Keep hitting. And have fun.” That’s how easy it is to explain baseball and its fascination. The new Gautinger head coach Christopher Howard smiles broadly and contently when he says with the slap: “That was always the best.” The discipline with club-like bats and very hard balls, home runs and strikes is a national sport in the USA or in Japan. In this country, baseball is still a bit exotic and has the reputation of having complicated rules and certain lengths. In Gauting it has been different for many years.

Howard is Gautinger, attended elementary and middle school there. He grew up with three siblings in a sporty family. First it was tennis in Pentenried: “We grew up on the tennis court,” he says. Howard is someone who is good at knocking the ball away.

Before training in the gym of the Gautinger Hauptschule, he talks about his sporting life, about his stations at the Regensburg sports boarding school and with the baseball players there and with the team in Haar, about his time in the Bundeswehr with the sports promotion group in Neubiberg, about his own career in the Bundesliga. It was always clear that sport would be an important part of his life. The 33-year-old is a former international, was a talent scout for the Cincinnati Reds and assistant coach in Arizona, most recently he was head coach of the German U18 national team. This fall he has returned to his Gauting Indians, where he started the sport, and coaches the senior men’s team. And if it works, he would like to take them back to the Bundesliga. The Gautingers have been there for several years.

Howard is a squat, rather quiet guy. He looks like he’s arrived, like he’s come home. The Indians, says the trainer, are like a family for him, in which he enjoys togetherness. Sometimes 200 spectators come to a U12 game. “It’s great how they stand behind it,” remarks the coach.

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In addition, it is a particularly successful family: the name Gauting should be known nationwide in the baseball world. Many of those who learned to hit and catch at the club founded 30 years ago in Würmtal with more than 180 members then played in the first Bundesliga or in the national team. Oskar von Mosch, for example, who was elected the new chairman in November. Or Bernhard Huber, an experienced Bundesliga player who is now also a member of the newly elected club board. The first team, the Gauting Indians, was promoted to the highest German league in 2004 and was able to stay there for seven years.

It takes hard work to be this good. The first team players train four times a week, even in winter. That adds up to more than ten hours. Sometimes in the hall of the Hauptschule, sometimes in the hall of the Gymnasium, and on Sundays in the hall of the Gautinger Sportclub (GSC). And in summer on the baseball field at the end of Leutstettener Straße, very close to the GSC site. In addition, there is regular strength training in the fitness center at the Reismühle. The Indians have three men’s teams, eight youth teams and one recreational team.

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So now first training in the hall until the new season starts in March. A good dozen players came this Wednesday evening. Old hands are there and younger talents like 17-year-old Elias Huber. He also likes the mental challenge of the sport, he says. After all, sometimes two three-hour laps have to be survived. “And there’s a lot of tactics involved,” he says. And a lot of oomph: when the players throw hard balls across the hall, you don’t want to be accidentally hit. At least there would be bruises. “Nothing will happen,” said club spokesman Holger Simonszent, “they can do it.” That evening they practice “details”, as the coach calls it: catching balls while running, throwing balls while kneeling on the ground to warm up their fingers.

“For us, the focus is on the youngsters,” says Howard. The Indians have always been good at that – and still are. According to the head coach, who knows the scene well, Gauting has the best youth program in all of Germany. Just recently, seven young “Indians” were appointed by the German Baseball Academy (DBA) to the 26-man squad of the best national U10 talents in Paderborn. They are now allowed to take part in a camp in Italy and an international tournament in the Czech Republic. “We’re in the good position right now that we have a lot of talented players and that’s for the long term. That’s a cool task to train,” says Howard. Now the important thing is to keep them in Gauting.

The square on Leutstettener Straße is not suitable for Bundesliga games

One problem is space. “We’re at the capacity limit of what the plant can do,” says Howard. And U10 head coach Oskar von Mosch says: “We are proud that our kids are so well represented at state and national level. Unfortunately, we have to fear losing these top talents to other clubs in the medium term. We urgently need an adequate training and competition site.” No matter how good the players may be and qualify for the first league, the terrain is not suitable for this level because it does not meet some of the prescribed requirements. For example, there is no floodlight or a strip of sand several meters wide around the playing field. The association is therefore in discussion with the community, the new chairman Oskar von Mosch is taking care of it. Meanwhile, head coach Howard continues to dream of a return to the Bundesliga – probably not in the coming season, but maybe in the coming years when the team is ready.

For Howard himself, the active time is over. The 33-year-old has suffered too many concussions. Recently there were two in one week: First he was knocked over in Heidenheim, a few days later a ball hit his helmet in Stuttgart. He initially continued to play, but a few hours are missing in his consciousness. He only regained consciousness in the hospital. “It can happen,” he says in his succinct way. But after consulting the doctors, he decided to end his career out of consideration for his health. But he can’t do without sport entirely: he regularly goes to weight training, plays tennis, and now and then he goes to the golf course: hit a few balls.

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