Dirk Fries, pitcher of the German National Team and the Cologne Cardinals, will give us a daily report about his time at the Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Taiwan.
Thursday March 6th
On Wednesday we, meaning the German Team and its medical and administrative staff, arrived in TAICHUNG, Taiwan, checking into the Hotel where the Mexican, the South African and the Spanish teams have also been accommodated. Due to a late arrival after a stopover in Hong Kong there was no time for a workout in order to get accustomed to the climate and time difference. The team did have a practice session today, before the tournament kicks off on Friday.
Before coming to Asia, our team spent 5 days in TIRRENIA, Italy, preparing for the tournament. There, led by head coach GREG FRADY, we worked out twice a day, trying to shake off the winter rust. Besides practicing we played intra-squad games as well as a team from the ITALIAN ACADEMY located in Tirrenia. Our team is very similar to the team that participated in the 2007 World Cup, having exchanged only a few players. Among the new guys is young newly-signed DONALD LUTZ, who joins his older brother Sascha on the Team. BENEDIKT ANTWI, a promising REGENSBURG pitcher, also made the squad.
As a team we used the time in Italy to get into rhythm and review our team´s defensive and offensive strategies. Due to the German weather players have only been able to work outside for a couple of weeks. Therefore Pitchers needed a few Innings to get ready and the Hitters needed to see some live pitching. But we are confident that we are ready for tomorrow, for our first game against Australia.
Compared to the other teams our preparation time has been rather short and maybe less elaborated. But we are in the tournament on short notice, being notified of our participation about 7 weeks ago. Still one can rate our team as a deserving participant after a strong but unlucky 4th place finish at the European Championship. Coach FRADY has the team in a positive mode, believing that we will play a solid and successful tournament. As of right now, we the players are less concerned about the results of the games than the type of baseball they play. Sure we are aware of the unbelievable chance and opportunity this tournament entails, but nonetheless we feel that we only need to focus on playing the best possible baseball that we can play, meaning good pitching and errorless defense. Everything else will fall into place.