Baseball took root in Germany in the aftermath of World War II, when American major leaguers teamed up on military bases and organized activities promoted the game among German youth.

Its popularity waned in the decades that followed. But the Baseball Bundesliga made a comeback in the 1980s and has been around ever since.

Several of the teams have small but dedicated fan bases. Now, they’d like to take a swing at getting the Americans back to the ballparks.

The Army’s European headquarters is just across the Rhine River from the home of the Mainz Athletics, which is contending for the league championship.

“Occasionally, we do have some (Americans), but we would be glad to have more to enjoy the game, watch the game,” said Nici Weichert, the Athletics’ sporting director who doubles as their second baseman.

“We should probably find a way to make it more (known) over there because I don’t know if everybody in Wiesbaden on the base knows that we exist,” he added.

The Athletics began in 1989 as an offshoot of the Mainz Rangers, a team of U.S. service members that played in the former German American League.

A couple of hours southeast, the Stuttgart Reds’ baseball and softball complex is just across from the Army’s Robinson Barracks gate on Schozacher Strasse.

Reds chairman Chris Manske, who’s been with the club since 1989, talked about the club’s close ties with the barracks, having played there before moving to its current location in 2004.

When the club opened its not-quite-complete TVC Ballpark on May 12 against the Athletics, Col. Matthew Ziglar, commander of the garrison in Stuttgart, threw out the ceremonial first pitch, along with Clemens Maier, the city’s head of security, order and sport.

Manske said Ziglar’s experience highlighted how it’s “not well known that there’s good baseball” nearby for Americans.

Having watched a pair of Baseball Bundesliga games earlier this month, I concur with that quality assessment.

In Stuttgart’s 9-7 loss on June 9 to first place Heidenheim, the Reds and Heidekoepfe showcased contrasting styles. Stuttgart played more small ball, getting guys on base. Heidenheim, meanwhile, brought power to the plate.

In Mainz’s 4-3 win in 10 innings over the Guggenberger Legionaere Regensburg, both team’s starters went deep into the game and pitched well, before the offenses came alive.

Overall, I rate the teams at a level of high Class A or Double-A minor league ball.

The atmospheres also were high quality, as the top four teams in the Baseball Bundesliga South squared off.

Both Mainz’s field and Stuttgart’s new ballpark, which Manske said will be completed by next year, were rocking, especially as the hosts came back in the later innings.

“We’ve had a lot of games like that the last couple of years,” Weichert said of the atmosphere on June 16. “We hope it’s going to stay like this.”

The ballparks have room for 700 and 650 seated spectators at Mainz and Stuttgart, respectively. At Mainz on June 16, it was standing room only, while at Stuttgart on June 9, just a handful of seats were empty.

The regular season ends for the Athletics and Reds on July 9, but their seasons will continue either in a way most American baseball fans would recognize or in a way German soccer fans easily would understand.

Two-time champion Mainz already has clinched a playoff spot, while the Reds, who have been in the Bundesliga since 2012, are clutching to the last position.

Stuttgart is hoping to avoid the “playdowns” in which the bottom teams in the league square off either to get relegated to the second division league, or face the second tier’s winner to stay in the top division, in sixth place. The fifth-place team stays up automatically.

The seventh-place team will be relegated this season to align the South with the North, which has six teams.

For those interested, the teams welcome new members at many levels. Both have baseball and softball teams starting from youth up to the top squads.

Mainz Athletics

Address: Hartmuehlenweg 3, Mainz, Germany

Cost: 8 euros, 6 euros for students and people with disabilities, 5 euros for club members, 4 euros for reduced club members and free for kids under 12. Can pay with cash, card or Paypal.

Information: Game schedule online at mainz-athletics.de.

Stuttgart Reds

Address: Am Schnarrenberg 10, Stuttgart, Germany

Cost: Up to 15 euros for a weekend series or 10 euros for a day; free for children under 6.

Information: Online: stuttgart-reds.de; Phone: +49 71152089460