Jendrick Speer new Manager of Germany’s Senior and U-23 Baseball National Teams

Jendrick Speer new Manager of Germany’s Senior and U-23 Baseball National Teams
16/03/2023
The German Baseball and Softball Federation (DBV) announced on Wednesday that Jendrick Speer is taking over as new manager of the senior and U-23 baseball national teams.

“We are happy that Jendrick Speer has agreed to take this position and we hope that we return to our winning ways especially with the senior national team,” says DBV President Juergen Elsishans. “For us it was crucial to select a German manager, who is able to be present in Germany for the entire year. We have accomplished that feat and wish him all the best.”

The 42-year-old Speer is leaving the Untouchables Paderborn in the German Baseball-Bundesliga, where he was their manager for the past six years and reached the finals last season. The former infielder celebrated his debut in the German senior national team at the age of 16 years in 1997. He won the bronze medal with the team in 2010 at the European Championship in Germany and was an important part of the national team for almost two decades.

He is facing a head start into his new chapter of his baseball career with both the U-23 Baseball European Championship and the Senior Baseball European Championship coming up in Austria and Czechia in August and September. Germany is facing Belgium, Italy and France in the first round of the U-23 in Wiener Neustadt and Israel, Belgium and Switzerland at the seniors in Prague.

Speer is succeeding Steve Janssen at the helm of the U-23 and senior national teams, who was their head coach since 2019. While he was able to capture two silver medals at the U-23 European Championships in 2019 and 2021, Germany didn’t accomplish the same access at the senior level with a sixth place at the 2019 Euros in Bonn and a ninth place at the 2021 Euros in Italy, as well as missing out on the qualification for the World Baseball Classic last September.

Photo by Walter Keller, German Baseball and Softball Federation