Niels Buschke

• Throws Right

• Born April 16, 1974

Biographical Information

Niels Buschke pitched in the Bundesliga and for the German national team.

In the 1990 European Junior Championship, he was 0-1 with a 24.00 ERA and hit .125/.222/.125; he followed by going 0-for-7 and posting a 20.79 ERA in the 1991 European Junior Championship and batting .182/.438/.182 while going 0-1 with a 13.00 ERA in the 1992 European Junior Championship. Bundesliga stats prior to 1994 are not available online as of 7/29/2025; in 1994, he had a 5-7, 6.23 record for the Hamburg Marines. The 20-year-old was 8th in the high-scoring Bundesliga-1 North in ERA, 8th in K (54), tied for 8th in wins, tied for second in losses (one behind Heino von Bargen), 5th in IP (82 1/3, between Michael de Gelmini and Georg Bull) and second in walks (64).

Switching to the Hamburg Knights in 1995, he posted a 2-5, 7.78 record, tying for 7th in losses. He still made the German squad for the 1995 European Championship, going 0-1 with a 14.40 ERA; he lost to Massimiliano Masin of Italy. In '96, he blossomed with the Lokstedt Stealers at 8-0, 3.54. He made leaderboards in ERA (4th), strikeouts (52, 7th), wins (tied for second, 6 behind leader Michael Wäller), IP (68 2/3, 6th), walks (31, 9th) and WHIP (5th). He was 2-1 with a 3.50 ERA in 1997, losing time as Wäller and Lutz Denckert saw the bulk of the work for Lokstedt.

In 1998, he was 5-1 with two saves and a 4.74 ERA, tying for 6th in the loop in saves. The next year, he was 5-3 with a 5.37 ERA, placing 8th in ERA and 9th in victories. When the Stealers won the title in 2000 (their only one through 2024), he was 2-0 with a save and a 4.76 ERA, as the distant #3 option behind Wäller and Frank Stattler. He fell to 1-5, 11.87 in 2001, allowing over two hits per inning and tying for 5th in defeats. This came despite the switch from aluminum to wood bats reducing offense.

Niels was 11-3 with a 6.66 ERA in the German minors in 2002. He tied for the most wins in the Bundesliga-2 North. Returning to the top loop in '03, he was 5-3 with a 5.14 ERA. He ranked 6th in ERA and tied for 4th in wins. He had a 1-4, 5.26 record in 2004, good for 10th in WHIP but tying for 4th in losses. He rebounded to 5-4 with a 2.88 ERA in 2005, placing 7th in ERA (between Jens Cornelsen and Mirco Heid) and tied for 9th in wins. His last season, he was 1-5 with a 5.88 ERA in 2006. He was 9th in ERA but tied for 5th in losses. Overall, he had gone 42-38 with 3 saves and a 5.38 ERA in 100 Bundesliga-1 Games from 1994-2006.

Sources

• German Baseball and Softball Federation
• Wayback Archive, 1995 European Championship