The MANNHEIM TORNADOS also continued their winning streak in the German Baseball-Bundesliga on Thursday with two lopsided wins over the MAINZ ATHLETICS (14-3, 13-3). However the current success of the club is over-shadowed about politics regarding their foreign players.
On Thursday evening and Friday morning the club released two press releases about a problem between the city Mannheim and the TORNADOS, which lasts since Spring 2008. Apparently the local attorney office pressed charges against Eddie Aucoin, Billy Hess and a father of a junior player because of immigration violations last year. They say they would play in Germany without a correct visa and would have been involved in illegal player deals. Additionally this spring the city of Mannheim would only allow a work visa to Justin Lazarus (member of South African national team), if he doesn’t play in the Bundesliga.
However all of these allegations are false, as the club emphasizes. The government in Karlsruhe now has issued to hold off prosecution against Hess, who is married to a European wife and is living in Germany since years. Aucoin isn’t playing for the TORNADOS anymore, as he now is under contract with the BUCHBINDER LEGIONAERE. But he and the father of the junior player had lost their job with an American employer because of the problems. Due to the unclear situation MANNHEIM’s American starting pitcher Clary Carlsen has left the country. [Clary Carlsen hasn’t left the country according to his brother. He just isn’t pitching anymore for MANNHEIM due to an injured shoulder.]
The club will hold a press conference on Saturday morning at 10am at the Hotel Park Inn in Mannheim. Members of the front office, head coach Georg Bull and Billy Hess will be on hand. We hope to receive more information afterwards.
(Disclaimer: We hope to have everything right with this difficult matter, if not, let us know: news@mister-baseball.com)