Andrew Buxkemper , a regular at the Stuttgart Area Little League's annual baseball clinic, credits the camp with sharpening his baseball skills. (John Vandiver/Stars and Stripes)
Andrew Buxkemper , a regular at the Stuttgart Area Little League's annual baseball clinic, credits the camp with sharpening his baseball skills. (John Vandiver/Stars and Stripes)
Pete Jenkins, a longtime college coach in the U.S., has been one of the regular volunteers, making the annual trip to Germany to teach youths from the U.S. military community in Europe. (John Vandiver/Stars and Stripes)
Larry Tannenbaum, a longtime leader of the local little league baseball community in Stuttgart, has run an annual youth baseball clinic for nearly 10 years. With plans to relocate back to the U.S., a new volunteer will be needed to manage the program. (John Vandiver/Stars and Stripes)
STUTTGART, Germany — Andrew Buxkemper has been a regular here since he was just a fourth-grader, learning the art of the game.
Now an 18-year-old Patch High School senior and starting pitcher for his school, this will be his last year attending the annual Stuttgart Area Little League baseball camp, which attracts young ball players from around Europe who seek to sharpen their skills under the tutelage of U.S. college coaches.
It could also be the last hurrah for the rest of the military community as well if a new volunteer can’t be found to keep the tradition alive.
“I think we’ve been lucky that we’ve had all these coaches take time out to come over here to give us a camp like you get in America,” Buxkemper said. “Hopefully they will be able to keep it going.”
Between Friday and Sunday, about 60 players from across the military community in Europe were in Stuttgart for the camp.
For the man behind the camp, it’s all been a labor of love. Larry Tannenbaum organizes a program that brings in expert coaches from the U.S. to work with young players who often don’t get the kind of training that is readily available to players in the U.S.
In his ninth year running the camp, Tannenbaum said he is trying to find someone to keep it going.
“I love baseball and I love kids, and so this has been my way of giving back to the military community,” he said.
However, Tannenbaum, a civilian contractor, is set to relocate in the coming months to the States, leaving a lot of questions about the future of a program he started as a way to give his son a chance to play.
“I’m hopeful we can find someone else to do it, but it is not so easy,” he said. “The reality is this takes a lot of time to put together and organize.”
As this year’s camp kicked off Friday, players stretched in the autumn chill and listened to words of wisdom from the camp’s coaches, who were giving pointers on everything from pitching and hitting to what college coaches care most about.
“In college, more than anything coaches are looking for a positive attitude,” said Pete Jenkins, a former catcher in the Milwaukee Brewers organization who has coached at Florida State University and more recently Winthrop University in South Carolina.
For Jenkins, a regular at the camp, making the trip to Germany has been a way to give back to the military.
“These kids sacrifice by being over here, so we’re just trying to give them a little bit of what players get back in the States,” he said. “For the sake of these kids, I hope they can find a way to keep it going.”
For Buxkemper, the Stuttgart clinic has been an annual autumn ritual that has fueled his ambitions of playing college ball, something he hopes to do next year.
“These coaches bring over all the new techniques. We get a lot of repetition, so it really helps,” he said.
Anyone interested in learning how to volunteer for the clinic can contact Tannenbaum.
