Diving Ducks Wiener Neustadt and baseball all of a sudden

Reading between the pages of the history books of the Diving Ducks Wiener Neustadt, an Austrian baseball club founded in 1987, known throughout Austria and present in both the men's and women's fields internationally, it that its founding members did not exactly want to play the sport of 'hit and run', but rather rugby, later discarded due to too many bruises and sufferings. The goal remained to make a tough man's sport and if rugby was too 'challenging', perhaps American football would be a good idea and then helmets and reinforced uniforms could impress the girls. The group of friends sent one of them on a mission to London to look for and buy the needed equipment, but he turned up in Wiener Neustadt with a baseball bat and glove. So what do we do now? Well, we play baseball!

What did the ducks have to do with it?

Surprisingly, there were many people who wanted to play baseball. The club was born, but now it needed a name. There were many proposals: Roter Stern Wiener Neustadt, Vorwärts Wiener Neustadt, or Lokomotive Wiener Neustadt. All resounding, but none were very convincing. And as always, the magic of music came to the rescue, more specifically the opening lines of a blues ballad that read 'If the river were whisky and I were a duck, I'd dive to the bottom and never come up again'. And Diving Ducks it was, and not only that, when the name was chosen, so did the colours of the first jerseys, brown and powder blue, because someone then said: 'if we want to be ducks, we must look like them'. From the dream of a somewhat crazy group of friends, a project was born that today represents an established sports reality and occupies a prominent place in the Austrian and even European baseball movement.

A vision become a splendid reality

From 1987 to today, the Wiener Neustadt Diving Ducks have grown year after year and can now boast a men's team in the Baseball Bundesliga, Austria's highest league, another one in the 2nd Bundesliga, two women's softball teams, one mixed slow-pitch team, a youth sector with teams in every category and with many trophies on their trophy cabinet. However, 2021 was the year in which history was written. For the first time since their inception, the Diving Ducks won the national title by beating the super-titled Vienna Metrostars in the final. The 'Ducks' from Wiener Neustadt, after five-second places in the Bundesliga, finally managed to lift the highest trophy in Austrian baseball to the skies. A victory that allowed them to represent their country at the Federations Cup in Antwerp, finishing with a brilliant third place. A winning wave that did not stop and led the Diving Ducks to win the title of Austrian champions again last year, confirming how an idea and a vision can become a great, concrete, splendid reality.

Growing new talent and always believing

That of the youth sector is a great commitment, but also a huge satisfaction because the boys who choose baseball and the colours of the Diving Ducks have the opportunity to play sport at a high level and many of them have become starters in the first team. A constant work, a passion that is never extinguished because to reach the goal you have to commit, work hard and always believe in it. These are all values that belong to the Macron philosophy that guides this club and that has a special feeling with baseball because the brand, now a world leader in sportswear, was founded in 1971 in Bologna, starting as the exclusive distributor of American brands of baseball equipment.  Had he known this, Erich, the friend sent to look for equipment in 1987, instead of going to London, could have travelled less distance and found it in Bologna.