News

ALLBB is back

Dear Baseball Friends,
After four long years, American Little League Baseball Berlin (ALLBB) is back in the southwest! We experienced two years of Covid-restrictions in 2020 and 2021, and then we had to wait another two years for the field at Sachtlebenstrasse to be renovated, but now it is (almost) finished and looks absolutely beautiful!
For those of you new to ALLBB, it is for kids from age 5 (2018) to age 12 (2011) who want to play baseball for fun.
ALLBB consists of a regular “outdoor” season played with games on Saturdays and practices during the week, beginning sometime after Spring Break and ending at the end of the school year. And it also consists of a winter season of indoor practices to give kids and coaches the opportunity to hone their skills.
The success of ALLBB depends on you! 
If you are a parent who would like to coach or assist coaching T-Ball, Minor League U10 or Major League U12 baseball, then please let us know! Ditto if you are interested in becoming an umpire!
Please feel free to share this post -- ALLBB is not limited to JFKS kids or parents. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me at below email. 
Best,
Max Voegler
(on behalf of the ALLBB Board)

 

Rams players play key roles helping BSVBB secure 3rd place in the U12 & U15 Länderpokal.

Over the long Pfingsten weekend in Bonn, Rams player Ben K played for the BSVBB All Star team. Ben played superbly over the entire weekend. In the game for 3rd place in Ger-many, Ben was the starting pitcher and pitched an unbelievable game. His efforts helped Berlin secure the victory and a podium finish.  

The U15 Länderpokal was held in Cologne and Wessling, a few weeks after the U12 Länderpokal. Rams players Nici V, Kentaro Y, Moritz Z, Killian H, and Kyran N were nominated to the Berlin All Star team. They all played key roles in numerous games through-out the weekend. On Saturday Berlin played in Wessling and won 2 of 3 games, only losing to the Bayern All Star team. 

On Sunday the Berlin All Star team played in Cologne on the same field that just last October the Berlin Rams took 2nd place in the German Champion-ships, only losing to Regensburg from Bayern. With the Berlin All Star team losing to Bayern the day before and the Rams players thinking about last October, the five Rams players and the rest of the Berlin team gave everything they had for the 3rd place game. All five Rams players started, Nici on 3rd, Killian on 1st, Mortiz in Left, Kentaro in Right, and Kyran on the mound. What many say was the best ball game of the entire weekend took place. Lead changes back and forth, and each team not giving up. After facing his limit of 24 batters, Kyarn left the mound and was replaced by Nici, who came in to close the game. With Kentaro and Mortiz making plays in the outfield and Kilian making plays on 1st.  In the final inning there were two outs, Nici pitches, a hit to 3rd base where Kyran fields the ball, throws to 1st base where Killian catches it, "BALL GAME!" Berlin takes 3rd place! 
During the awards ceremony before awarding the top three teams with their trophies & medals, the individual awards were given out. Rams player Kyran N was awarded MVP of the 2023 U15 Länderpokal.

European U14 P.O.N.Y. qualifiers

The European U14 P.O.N.Y. (Protect Our Nation's Youth) qualifiers were held in Prague from 20-23 April. Fourteen teams from across Europe and Israel took part in the tournament. Berlin Rams player Kyran Norgren was nominated to play for the Deutsche Baseball Akademie "DBA". Kyran played exceptionally well the entire tournament, both offensively and defensively. The DBA won the European Championship and will be playing in the Pony World Series this August in the U.S.A.
We congratulate Kyran on his European Championship and wish him all the best of luck playing in the PONY world series. 


 

Nici and Liam WBSC European Champions

July 11, 2022 - We the Rams coaches CONGRATULATE two of our under 12 players Nici and Liam. Not just for being nominated to the under 12 Germany national team! They are both now WBSC European Champions! The U12 German national team won the European Championship in extra innings last Saturday. Both Liam and Nici started every game that was played in the EM. They both played unbelievably the entire tournament. They both pitched, they both had numerous hits/runs/RBI's and filled not just the leader statistics for the German team, but also for the leader statistics for all the teams. Liam played 3rd base and had numerous great plays there and great hits. Nici took his game to another level during the tournament, hitting numerous singles, doubles, triples, and a homeruns. Nici was also Germany’s closing pitcher, leading the team with 11 strikeouts, many of those strikes came in the semi final and final! Nici's  exceptional performance did not go unnoticed by the National team trainers, they nominated Nici to play with the U13 National team prospects in Prague later this summer.

For a deeper look into what Nici (Nicholas) and Liam achieved in the last week, here is the link to team Germany on the European WBSC webpage: https://www.wbsceurope.org/en/events/2022-u-12-european-baseball-championship/teams/22408

You can also find information regarding all the games at https://www.baseballakademie.de/news and https://www.baseball-softball.de

Over the last ten years Rams baseball players have always been successful in Berlin, Germany, and across Europe. The last 8 months have been no exception. In preparation for the 2022 season (April to October) training here in Berlin started in October 2021.  Yes they train the entire year including the winter.

To prepare for the 2021 season, many of our Rams players traveled around Europe, the U.S.A., the Dominican Republic, and the Canary Islands off the West coast of Africa during the cold German winter months. Here are just some of those journey’s and some of the results of the tournaments our players were involved in.

Rams U12 Liam was in Nettuno, Italy in late October early November with the 2022 U12 German national team prospects playing in the European Boys League Tournament. The team took 2nd place overall.

Rams U15 player Kyran was in Puerto de la Cruz in December and played in the Tenerife winter league games.

In December Major League Baseball  held a Master Class session in Berlin, several Rams players were selected to participate in the event. Special guests at the event were, Max Kelper, current Minnesota Twins player and former JFK student, Marcus Solbach, current L.A. Dodgers player from Germany, Alex Schmidt shortstop for Regensburg Legionnaire Bundesliga team and German National team. Alex is also a former Berlin JFK student.  

Rams U15 player Noah was in Florida in late December early January and took part in the USSSA All American games at the Space Coast complex.

In January  Rams Players Kyran and Johann were invited to Paderborn for the annual German “Winterball” (tryouts for the 2022 U15 National teams). Both Johann and Kyran were nominated to play in events in 2022 for Germany.

In February and March Kyran was in Sosua/Cabarete, Dominican Republic training with U15 National team player prospects.

Liam was in Barcelona in March with the U12 German national team prospects for the “Campeonato De Cataluña” to defend the Championship title that Germany held. They did just that and kept the Championship title in German hands.  

Note: Due to the Covid Pandemic there was not a tournament in Cataluña 2021. The last tournament was in 2020 right before the Pandemic hit Europe. In 2020 the German U12 prospects won the tournament. Rams player Kyran was on that 2020 Championship Team.

Rams players George Simon and Noah were in Vienna playing baseball 5 at the beginning of March.

In March/April Johann was in Sosua/Cabarete, Dominican Republic for training  with other U15 National team player prospects.  

Over the Easter Break Kyran was in Boca Chica, Dominican Republic with the U15 German National team training. During that same time Johann returned to Berlin from the Dominican Republic and then left the next day to Prague, Cezch Republic with the  German “Young Guns”  to take part in the European Pony Qualifier. They took 3rd in Europe.

Justus and Leander were in Remini, Italy over the Easter break taking part in “Easterball” training there.

Over Pfingston Two U12 Rams players (Nici and Ben) played for the Berlin Auswahl team in Bonn for the German Lander Pokal. Also over Pfingston in Bonn the U18 Berlin Auswahl team played, five of the current Rams U15 players were nominated to the U18 team. They were Johann, Joshua, Kenny, Leander, & Kyran. In Bonn Johann pitched an amazing game there and the other Rams U15 players proved they are ready for U18 baseball in 2023.  For the U12 part of the tournament, Nici was awarded “Best Pitcher” U12 of the entire tournament!

The following week, Ben, Nici and Liam were in Schriesheim for the U12 German Allstars week and final tryouts for the U12 national team. Nici and Liam were nominated to the 2022 national team, and Nici was awarded best pitcher of the week. Two weeks in a row Nici was awarded with the honor of best pitcher!

Over memorial day weekend Kyran was in Staranzano Italy with the German U15 National team. There they played in the Alpe Adria tournament against other European U15 National teams, including the current European Champions the Czech Republic. The finals were Germany vs Czech Republic. Germany won the tournament and came home with Gold.  

The following Rams players were nominated to the 2022 U15 Berlin Auswahl team, Noah, Justus, Leander, George Simon, Joshua, Johann, Kenny, and Kyran. The Berlin team played a triple header on Saturday and a double header on Sunday, both days it was in the upper 90’s but that did not stop our Rams playersplayers. Rams players lead the way for the Berlin team the entire weekend. They returned to Berlin with their 3rd in Germany bronze medals.

Nici and Liam were Trebic, Czech Republic at the end of June beginning of July preparing for the U12 European Championships in Vienna Austria.  Well we know how that went for them!

There are so many other Rams players that we have that continue to work hard all the time. Without them we would not be a team. They are Lilli, Ben II, Lyam II, Hendrik, Levi, Hunter, Kentaro.

Here in Berlin the Rams have been playing a very good 2022 season so far, we still have a handful of games left until the end of the season in October.  Let’s see where we stand then!

For those that do not know the Rams track record in Berlin over the last ten years in the BSVBB. Here it is.

U15 Jugend Landesmeister, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 (Covid year), 2021 (Covid year)

U15 Jugend Vize Landesmeister 2014

U15 “Pony” Jugend Landesmeister 2017, 2018, 2019 “Rams 1”

U15 “Pony” Jugend Landesvizemeister 2019 “Rams 2” (Note: in 2019 the Rams had three U15 teams  playing, one in the normal league and two in the Pony league. We took 1st in the normal league and 1st & 2nd in the Pony league.)

U12 Schuler Landesmeister 2018

U12 Schuler Vizelandesmeister 2015, 2016, 2017, 2019

U10 Kinder Landesmeister  2015, 2016

To be able to succeed in Baseball in Berlin in the under 15 and below divisions like the Rams have.  A group of dedicated coaches who have been working with Rams players over the years is the core to the success the Rams have had. A HUGE Thank you  to those coaches and trainers we have had over the years, John, Dave, David, Angel, Jeffrey, Derek, Cameron, Maikel, Josh, Gregg.

We know when players leave the Rams program and go to other programs at the U18 level, Rams players are instant game changers when they walk on the field for those teams. History proves that over the years the teams who won the Berlin U18 Championships were stacked with former Rams players.

Jeremy Trzeciak makes U12 German National Baseball Team

March 20, 2017 - Our Schüler Ram, Jeremy Trzeciak, had his last tryouts this past weekend to make the German U12 National baseball team. After two days of intense baseball, Jeremy put all of his hard work into play. After all was said and done, Jeremy had reached his dream and was selected at the end of the tryouts. The rams coaches congratulat him on a job well done. Even though we cannot take credit for his accomplishment, since he came to us already with the determination of making the national team, we will ride along on his bandwagon of success. Jeremy has shown what it means not to give up! Now that you made it, keep working hard because the others sure will be. Along with Jeremy, 10 other players were chosen and another 5 will follow to fill out the team. Jeremy has the following major events in front of him now: U12 European championships in the Netherlands and the U12 world championships in Taiwan. All the best of luck and success.

JFKS Rams Baseball T-Ballers Win the Berlin Brandenburg Championships for 2016

September 19, 2016 - Berlin-Rams T-Ball 2016:

JFKS Rams Baseball celebrate winning season in all divisions

Our T-Ball team won the 2016 Championship in the BSVBB - Baseball und Softball in Berlin und Brandenburg. Big congratulations to our baseball "Nachwuchs"! 2016 was a successful year for Berlin-Rams overall, as the little league team (Jugend, age 13-15) also won the Championships in Berlin-Brandenburg, and the minor league team (Schüler, age 8-12) got second place.
The Rams are open to anyone who would like to play baseball, the children do not have to attend JFKS school. Email: scjfks-rams@berlin.com

 

 

 

 

Berlin-Rams Schüler 2016

 

 

 

Berlin-Rams Jugend 2016

Congratulations to Baseball Rams on their indoors victories!

February 29, 2016 - On the weekend of February 27-28th, 2016, our baseball Rams teams participated in the 12. Berliner Indoor Baseball Championship 2016.


The Rams Jugend team took second place.

The Rams Kinderliga team defended their Championship title from 2015 and won the Berliner indoor baseball Championship 2016!

From Berlin Little League to Major League: Max Kepler

October 4th, 2015 - "What an incredible, chest-thumpin' thrill to see former player Max Kepler from our Berlin Little League days step into the batter's box as a Minnesota Twin. (Max was also this year's Southern League MVP for his champion Chattanooga Lookouts.) Welcome to the SHOW, Max - you belong up there!"

This is what Mr. Chad Felt, Max's former LL coach and JFKS teacher, wrote as he watched the game on October 1st in Cleveland, Ohio. Mr. Felt kindly shared with us not only this photo, but also team photos from over fifteen years ago, showing Max Kepler's baseball beginnings in Berlin: Mr. Felt coached him with Dave Chilton (Cubs), Karen Wingo, a JFKS elementary teacher (Devil Rays), and again with Karen and David Rosenfeld for the Marlins. Incidentally, three others on that Marlins team went on to play college ball: Zach and Nate Ferster (Baldwin Wallace College) and Momo Felt who pitches at Dickinson College.

Max Kepler first attended John-F.-Kennedy-School in Berlin, and from 2008 lived in Regensburg, where he played for the Buchbinder Legionäre. He signed with the Twins in 2009, and after six years in Minor League was called up to the Major League in September 2015.  

Congratulations from all of us at SC JFKS Berlin to Max Kepler!

SC JFKS Rams Baseball adds a new team to play in the BVSB "Schülerliga"

September 2, 2014 - From the 2015 season on, the Rams will be adding a division in the BSVBB (Berlin/Brandenburg Softball and Baseball League) "Schülerliga". These players are in the age bracket from 9-12 years. The German baseball league goes by birth year only, which means that the following years are eligible: 2003/2004/2005/2006 for 2015. This will be in addition to the normal American Little League Baseball program. If you have any questions please contact Coach John Dillon.

Rams Baseball Team Played in German Baseball Youth Championships in Paderborn

September 23, 2013 - For the first time in history of our baseball program, the SC JFKS baseball team Rams participated in German Baseball Youth Championships 2013 (Deutsche Meisterschaft Jugend) in Paderborn. The boys and coaches travelled to the tournament hosted by Paderborn Untouchables on September 21-22, 2013. The best eight teams in German youth baseball competed. The Rams played against the Sollingen Alligators, the Buchbinder Legionäre, and the Stuttgart Reds. They seemed to be evenly matched in each game but had some bad luck so this year it was last place in the tournament. But, needless to say, we are proud of what the Rams achieved this year. Great job, and keep it up!