The German Baseball and Softball Federation (DBV) announced on Wednesday the appointment of former national team pitcher Dirk Fries as new sport director. The 35-year-old succeeds Michel Gomez-Kraemer at this post, who had left the DBV last summer.

Long time readers of Mister-Baseball.com are familiar with Fries from his columns about the 2007 Baseball World Cup and the 2008 Olympic Qualifier, where he played with the German National Team. In Taiwan in 2007 he also became the first German pitcher to pick up a win in Baseball World Cup history.

Fries started his baseball career in the early 1990ies. In the German Baseball-Bundesliga he played for the Cologne Cardinals, Bonn Capitals and Haar Disciples from 1995 to 2009. He also spent time in Spain, playing for CBS Rivas in Madrid and at Culver Stockton College in the United States. After his active career he became a coach, working as head coach in Haar and assistant coach under Greg Frady among other stints.

In recent years Fries worked for the German Gymnastics Federation. He will start as new sport director at the DBV on March 15. He will be responsible for the coordination of all baseball and softball national team programs of the federation.

Photo by Walter Keller, www.catchthefever.com