Markus Gienger

Markus Gienger

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born January 12, 1981 in Frankfurt, Hesse Germany

Markus Gienger has played for the German national team. His father, Eberhard Gienger, was a world champion in gymnastics. He has led his league in batting average twice. His brother Andreas Gienger has also played for the German national team.

From 1997-1999, Markus was on the German junior team, hitting .235/.373/.275 in three European Junior Championships. Markus hit .420 with a .528 OBP in 1999, finishing 7th in average and sixth in OBP. In the 2001 European Championship, he went 3 for 4 with a time hit by pitch. He batted .400/.512/.571 for the 2002 Bonn Capitals in 13 games. In 2003, he produced at a .432/.580/.525 clip and led the northern Bundesliga division in average and hits (35). He tied for 3rd with 29 RBI. He threw out 43.8% of attempted base-stealers.

Gienger was 0 for 12 in the 2003 European Championship. In the 2004 European Championship B-Pool, he was 3 for 8 with a home run and 6 RBI. That year, he hit .438/.570/.550 for the Regensburg Legionäre. He was second in the Southern division of Bundesliga in average and OBP and was third in OPS.

In 2005, Markus was with the Cologne Cardinals, hitting .376/.476/.486. He was 0 for 2 with a walk in the 2005 European Championship. Gienger batted .458/.559/.611 for Cologne in 2006 and led the northern division in average, second in OBP, third in RBI (22) and OPS and was 5th in slugging. He produced at a .364/.490/.403 clip in 2007. He was 1 for 5 in the 2007 European Championships. He was 3 for 10 for Germany in the 2007 Baseball World Cup.

He returned to the Legionaere for 2008. In the 2008 European Cup in Regensburg, he hit .263/.300/.368. He hit .261/.290/.420 for an unimposing regular season but led all catchers with a .995 fielding percentage. He was MVP in the finals, helping Regensburg to its first title ever.

Sources

• German baseball statistics
• Mister Baseball
• 2008 European Cup in Regensburg