Georg Bull

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Georg Bull

  • Bats Right, Throws Right

Biographical Information[edit]

Georg Bull was a top German catcher and third baseman.

Bull played for West Germany in the 1979 European Junior Championship, hitting .294/.333/.412 and fielding .815; he had six runs and seven steals in five games, leading his team in swipes and tying for the run lead. Statistics for the German leagues are unavailable prior to 1994 online (as of October 2015) but it is known that Bull won Bundesliga-1 titles with the Mannheim Amigos in 1983 and 1992.

Georg hit .400/.455/.900 with 3 homers, 9 runs and 11 RBI in the 1992 European B-Level Championship, third on Germany in home runs and RBI. He produced at a .355/.417/.387 clip and fielded .930 in the 1993 European Championship; only fellow backstop Wilgen Reyes had a better average for Germany. He had a team-high 11 hits, three more than runner-up Klaus Knüttel. He missed the tournament top 10 in hits by one and in average by .020.

In the 1994 Bundesliga-1, he batted .385/.491/.549 for the Berlin Sluggers and was 9-2 with a save and a 5.63 ERA on the mound. He tied for sixth in the northern Bundesliga-1 with 35 hits, tied for 8th with 12 doubles, tied for third with 36 runs, was 10th in OBP, ranked 4th in ERA, tied Gavin Marshall for second in wins (5 back of Michael Wäller) and was 5th in WHIP (1.67) in a high-scoring loop.

The Mannheim native hit .348/.400/.348 in the 1995 European Championship with five runs and seven RBI in seven games, fielding .906. His eight hits were second on Germany, one behind Sven Huhnholz and he led the team in RBI (one ahead of Huhnholz) despite a slugging percentage almost 100 points below the team average. It was his last time playing for Germany in an international tournament.

Bull's batting line for the 1996 Trier Cardinals was .352/.430/.523 as he was on his third Bundesliga champion. In '97, he moved to the Paderborn Untouchables, for whom he hit .378/.509/.567 with 34 runs in 28 games. The 33-year-old stole 11 bases in 12 tries. He tied Stefan Pößl for 4th in runs, was 10th in OBP, tied for first in hit-by-pitch (9), was 9th in OPS (between Huhnholz and Reyes) and led all players in putouts (190).

In 1999, Bull batted .267/.340/.349 for the Strausberg Sun Warriors (he did not play in the Bundesliga in 1995 or 1998). He was third in the league in fielding (.994). He hit .319/.422/.449 for the 2000 Sun Warriors and was 1-0 with a 9.72 ERA in his last stint on the hill. Returning to Paderborn in 2001, he won his 4th Bundesliga championship; he hit only .222/.286/.259. With the '02 Untouchables, he batted .378/.455/.422 as the main catcher for the champions. He played error-free ball and threw out an amazing 17 of 20 would-be base-stealers.

Bull was the first German to play baseball in South Africa and the Dominican Republic (though not apparently in the Dominican League). He founded the German Baseball Academy in 2003 and coached seven German youth or junior champions (through 2015) as well as managing German entries to the Pony League World Series. He has guided the German U-15 national team from 2005-2015, leading them to their first European title in 2015.

In 2015, he was inducted into the German Baseball and Softball Hall of Fame; the last baseball inductees had been in 2006.

Primary Sources: German Baseball Hall of Fame, German baseball stats