The top baseball and softball leagues in Germany - a 16-team Ben's Baseball Bundesliga and an eight-club Women's Softball Bundesliga - celebrated their opening days on 8 August, a delay to its usual start date due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Ben's Baseball Bundesliga maintained its format: 16 teams split into two divisions (north and south), with the top two finishers of each division advancing to the semifinals and the winners of the semifinals competing for the title in the final series. Due to the late start, the regular season will feature only a single round-robin, with each team playing 14 games. Semifinals and finals will be a best-of-three series. Doubleheaders will be made of up seven-inning games, while regular nine-inning games will be the rule when a game per day is played.
Live scoring and the video streaming of selected games is available through the Baseball-Bundesliga.de website.
The Women's Softball Bundesliga has a similar format. The eight teams are split into north and south division and the top two finishers of each division at the end of a 12-game regular season will advance to the best-of-three semifinals. The winners will compete for the title in a best-of-five final series. The teams eliminated from the playoffs will play for the DeutschlandPokal (Germany Cup).
Only 14 players per team are allowed to compete on a single day due to the pandemic control restrictions. Each State of the Federal Republic has its own limits to the number of spectators allowed into ballparks.
