Ralf Eckel

Ralf Eckel

• Bats Right, Throws Right

• Born February 9, 1969 in Paderborn, North Rhine-Westphalia Germany

Biographical Information

Ralf Eckel played in the Bundesliga-1 and for the German national team.

With Germany in the 1995 European Championship, he pitched two games with no decisions; he allowed 11 hits, 6 walks and 7 runs (5 earned) in 6 innings while fanning five. He had the median ERA on the German staff and was close to the mean (6.43 to 6.38 for the team). He was the first player from the Paderborn Untouchables to play for Germany on the international stage.

He was 2-8 with 3 saves and a 7.54 ERA for his hometown Paderborn Untouchables in 1996. He was 8th in the Bundesliga-1 north with 51 K (between Niels Buschke and Dirk Günther), tied teammate Andreas Becker for the most losses, was 2nd in saves, ranked 4th in IP (80, between Michael de Gelmini and Suk-Hwan Jun) and led in hit batsmen (14, one more than Becker). Eckel did not pitch in the Bundesliga-1 in 1997 and saw limited time for Paderborn in 1998 (4 R, 2 ER in 4 IP) and 1999 (7.27 ERA in 5 G) to end his career at that level.

He was managing the company Zaunkreisel in 2011 when they became a sponsor of the German Baseball and Softball Federation youth programs.