The German Baseball and Softball Federation (DBV) announced on Tuesday that Martin Helmig is taking over as head coach of the Senior National Team throughout the 2016 European Championship. As a player and head coach Helmig has won 14 championships in the German Baseball-Bundesliga. Since the Buchbinder Legionaere let him go in the fall of 2014 he was sport director of the Deggendorf Dragons, currently a third-division team in Bavaria.
The German National Team was without an official head coach since the end of 2014, when Greg Frady’s term ended. At last year’s All-Star Game Don Freeman and Troy Williams were coaching Germany. During the World Baseball Classic Qualifier in Mexicali former Major Leaguer Garth Iorg managed the team. Helmig was an assistant coach on the staff during the WBC Qualifier.
Helmig was born on June 28, 1961 in Mannheim. His father was Claus T. Helmig, who died at the beginning of June. During his active career he played baseball during the summer and ice hockey in the winter. He went to college in Palm Springs and Riverside. During the 1980ies he played in Anzi, Italy and for the Haarlem Nicols in the Netherlands.
Twice Helmig participated in Spring Training with the Chicago White Sox and the Baltimore Orioles. In Germany as a player and coach he won championships with the Mannheim Amigos, Trier Cardinals, Untouchables Paderborn and the Buchbinder Legionaere Regensburg. Aside from the WBC Qualifier and some work for the German Baseball Academy (DBA) Helmig hasn’t coached yet any national team in Germany.
His first assignment as head coach is going to be the All-Star Game in Bad Homburg on July 31, where the German National Team faces the Bundesliga All-Stars. Afterwards Germany is going to participate in the France International Baseball Tournament “Yoshida Challenge” in Senart, France and then in the European Championship in Hoofddorp, Netherlands.