Building a future German baseball star in Houston

Baseball has its own language.

At Baseball USA in Houston, there's a one-of-a-kind player who speaks baseball and two other languages, too: English and German.

Tristan Russell is now 13 after moving from Germany when he was eight. When you hear him speak German its more proof of how far he's truly come.

"If you don't move to America, do you think of any of this happens?" asks sports anchor Jason Bristol.

"No," Russell said.

"This is almost an American dream" added Bristol. "Yes." answered Russell.

This past summer, Tristan was the only member of Germany's U12 national team living in the United States. How does he start playing for the German national team?

"It's a funny story," said his dad, Tyler. "We were on vacation."

The family was back in Germany, where Tristan's mother Silke is from, when a coach there spotted Tristan practicing with his father. Eventually, the national team staff, according to Tyler Russell, said, 'Hey, we think he's really got something and we'd like him to come out and play with the national team or at least give it a shot.'

So this is all by chance?

"Pure chance," Tyler said.

Tristan didn't start playing baseball until he was nine, a year after the Russell family moved to the United States.

Silke says baseball is not that popular in Germany, which is home to the defending World Cup soccer champions. "We're a soccer country," she said. "We have a title to defend."

And another title to now defend, too.

Germany on the most recent European Championships held in the Czech Republic, thanks to Tristan's hitting and pitching.

"What ended up happening is (Tristan) ran into a lot of great coaches," added Tyler.

Coaches like Enrique Cruz from Cruz Baseball, who's now working on Tristan's switch-hitting. "He's probably the only player I've ever had (who) sends me videos of himself working out in his garage," joked Cruz, who's father Jose Sr. starred for the Astros and brother Jose Jr. played nine seasons in the majors.

"I don't like anything more than to practice, so I try to do it as much as I can," said Tristan, who's being moved up to Germany's U15 team and will participate in a training camp in April in the Dominican Republic.

In a short time, Tristan Russell has come a long way.

At first, he didn't speak the language: 'baseball' or English. Now he's playing for his other 'home' team all around the world.

Photos provided by Tyler Russell