Ga. State's Frady also coaches German team

By DOUG ROBERSON

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

He says he speaks enough German to get by, but when it comes to baseball, no translator is needed.

Greg Frady has been wearing two hats for the past few years. He has been an assistant coach or coach for the Georgia State Panthers the past five years, but also he has been the coach of the German national baseball team the past six.

He will be leading his German team in the World Baseball Challenge in Prince George, British Columbia, on Friday. Six teams will compete in the nine-day event.

“This is good preparation for my German team leading up to the World Cup in September,” Frady said.

The majority of Frady’s players compete in Germany’s baseball bundesliga, a semi-pro league. The players aren’t paid, but they get some money for travel expenses. Others play in Holland and a few play in the minor leagues in the United States. Frady said all the players speak multiple languages, including English.

Frady laughs when relaying an anecdote about a 7:30 a.m. breakfast he once called for the team during the European Championships in Prague in 2005. He showed up at 7:30 a.m. to find the entire team was already there and had already eaten. Two of the players were passing the time by reading a self-teaching guide to the Japanese language.

“It spoke volumes that, while they may be behind in baseball instincts because they haven’t played 100-plus years like a U.S. kid, they have a great thirst to learn the game, and to learn in general,” Frady said.

To understand the importance that these two tournaments hold to Frady and his team, it’s necessary to go back to 2003. Germany had gone winless in the European Championships and was relegated to the B Pool of smaller nations. The team was told that if it didn’t win the B Pool championships, the German Sports Federation would drop its funding.

So when Frady was hired, after the recommendation of a scout from the Atlanta Braves, and flew to Germany to meet the team, he said everyone was stressed out.

“They said coach ‘Really, I want to play but I don’t want to play because I don’t want to be on the team that loses baseball for us.’ ”

They didn’t need to worry. The team won the B Pool and kept its funding. Four years later it defeated Thailand in Taiwan in the 2007 World Cup for its first win in that tourney.

“The single most gratifying thing for me is to see a group of guys who love baseball so much, who are so respectful to the rest of the world in the way that they play and their treatment to other people, to see us get some wins and gain world respect from the others we are playing,” Frady said.

He transformed the team from an older squad, in which some of the players felt entitled, to a younger, more fit squad that’s more focused on the team.

He spends time with the German team during the summer and fall when there aren’t as many things going on with his GSU team. He said not being around his German players all the time actually helps him coach.

“Sometimes when you are there everyday, you lose the effectiveness of the moment,” Frady said. “By coming there, everything’s important. We maximize the time when I am there.”

He says wearing two hats has taught him a lot about being a coach.

“There’s no way I can communicate how much professional development it’s been for me, not only as far as baseball, but personal development to see other cultures, other countries, developing a network of people, of friends, throughout the world.”