The Mannheim Tornados announced the acquisition of 28-year-old American first baseman Luke Matthews a couple of days ago. After a stint with the United States Marine Corps he joined Monterey Peninsula College in California. He later also attended Eastern Nazarene University. He was voted on All-Conference teams on both colleges.
In 2011 Matthews worked as assistant coach at Monterey Peninsula College. He is supposed to play mainly first base and occasionally outfield for the southern division club in the German Baseball-Bundesliga. He also is going to work as coach of the farm team and supports the coaching staffs of the youth teams.
The Tornados with new player-coach Matt Kemp are going to have a busy preseason program. From March 20 to 25 they will travel to Rimini, Italy for a training camp, which also includes four games against the Italian Baseball League club Telemarket Rimini. One week later, they will participate in a preseason tournament (March 30 to April 1) at Family Stadium in Rotterdam, Netherlands together with host DOOR Neptunus, UVV and Kotlarka Prague.