1. Baseball- und Softballclub Bonn Capitals e.V., commonly referred to as Bonn Capitals, is a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

and

softball Softball is a Variations of baseball, variation of baseball, the difference being that it is played with a larger ball, on a smaller field, and with only underhand pitches (where the ball is released while the hand is primarily below the ball) ...

club from

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

North Rhine-Westphalia North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

, founded on November 8, 1989. Its first men's team has been competing in the DBL (German Baseball League, formerly the Baseball Bundesliga) since 1994 and currently plays in its northern division, the Bundesliga Nord, after initially playing in the southern division until 1996. The women's softball team was promoted to the northern division of the Softball Bundesliga in 2018. The Capitals have won the northern division championship ten times, most recently in 2024, and advanced to the finals of the Bundesliga play-offs eight times, winning thrice (in 2018, 2022, and 2024). They were runners-up in the

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by top-division European clubs. The competition begins with a round robi ...

in 2021, the third German team ever to do so and the first in over a decade. In the 2022 European Cup, the team advanced to the semi-finals before being narrowly defeated by Parma Baseball Club and subsequently secured the third place after defeating

San Marino San Marino, officially the Republic of San Marino, is a landlocked country in Southern Europe, completely surrounded by Italy. Located on the northeastern slopes of the Apennine Mountains, it is the larger of two European microstates, microsta ...

. In 2023, they again lost to Parma in the semi-finals and finished fourth after co-host

Amsterdam Pirates SV Amsterdam Pirates, commonly referred to as Amsterdam Pirates, is a Dutch baseball and softball organization based in Amsterdam that plays in the Honkbal Hoofdklasse. It was founded as an expansion of the football club SV Rap on 17 February 1 ...

won the bronze medal game.

Club structure

The club consists of 16 teams total, including: * 1st Men's Baseball Team, 1. Bundesliga (1st Division) * 2nd Men's Baseball Team, 2. Bundesliga (2nd Division) * 1st Women's Softball Team, Bundesliga * 2nd Women's Softball Team, Landesliga (State League) as well as baseball teams playing in the

NRW North Rhine-Westphalia or North-Rhine/Westphalia, commonly shortened to NRW, is a States of Germany, state () in Old states of Germany, Western Germany. With more than 18 million inhabitants, it is the List of German states by population, most ...

-Liga (State League) and Bezirksliga (District League) and a number of junior teams.

Women's softball teams

The first women's softball team was established in 1992 and played its first season the following year. In 1994, it was disbanded following an accident and would not be reestablished until 2005. In 2018, the reformed team ascended to the Softball Bundesliga. A second team is playing in the Landesliga (State League). Bonn first reached the play-off finale for the German softball championship in 2021, losing to the Wesseling Vermins, but won the Deutschlandpokal Softball in the same year. In 2022, the team again faced Wesseling in the Bundesliga finale and went on to win their first league championship. Due to winning the Deutschlandpokal in 2021, the Capitals represented Germany in Group A of the 30th Women's European Cup Winners Cup, which was held in

Viladecans Viladecans () is a town near Barcelona, Spain. It is located between Sant Boi de Llobregat and Sant Climent de Llobregat, and is on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea between El Prat de Llobregat and Gavà. It has a hospital, which serves the su ...

, Spain between August 15 and 20 in 2022. The 1st Women's Softball Team finished their first participation in an international competition ranked third.

Ballpark

The Bonn Capital's ballpark is located in the Rheinaue park in the district of Hochkreuz in northern

Bad Godesberg Bad Godesberg () is a borough () of Bonn, southern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. From 1949 to 1999, while Bonn was the capital of the Federal Republic of Germany, most foreign embassies were in Bad Godesberg. Some buildings are still used as br ...

. The facilities consist of two baseball fields and one softball field for professional play as well as a smaller baseball field for students. The fields are arranged in a clover formation. The Rheinaue Stadium hosted the

European Baseball Championship The European Baseball Championship is the main championship tournament between national baseball teams in Europe, governed by the Confederation of European Baseball (CEB). History Italy won the inaugural European Baseball Championship in , and ...

in 2001 and 2019, co-hosting with

Solingen Solingen (; ) is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, 25 km east of Düsseldorf along the northern edge of the Bergisches Land, south of the Ruhr. After Wuppertal, it is the second-largest city in the Bergisches Land, and a member of ...

on the latter occasion. The 2009

European Junior Baseball Championship The U-18 Baseball European Championship, sometimes referred to as the U-18 European Baseball Championship and formerly the European Junior Baseball Championship, is a biennial, under-18 international baseball tournament sanctioned and created by t ...

also took place here. It also hosted the 2022 European Champions Cup from 7 to 11 June, wherein the Bonn Capitals competed in Group B and finished third.

Roster

European Champions Cup record

References

External links

Official Website

Baseball Bundesliga Page

Bonn Capitals Baseball Youtube channel

Bonn Capitals Softball Youtube channel
{{Bundesliga (baseball) 1989 establishments in West Germany Baseball teams established in 1989 Baseball teams in Germany Sport in Bonn