Australian baseball
Posted: Fri Jan 20, 2006 2:10 pm
I was flicked on the local Canberra news last night right at the end of a short piece that was (I think) about baseball and a possible new franchise for the ACT. I’ve done some idle googling and can’t find anything to that effect. But I did find that the Claxton shield starts tomorrow in Sydney (it’s the baseball equivalent of the Sheffield Shield except it’s played in a carnival format). Anyhoo, that got me reminiscing about the halcyon days of the Australian Baseball League in the mid-90s. I wasn’t a fan of the sport (though I still watch the world series when it’s on).
My interest was kind of perverse: I watched the ABL to see if it would fail. I was going through a period where I was utterly convinced that the Yanks were inexorably destroying Australian culture and that baseball was making inroads in Australia and would therefore eventually displace cricket. [I completely lost that paranoia when listening to the Sydney Blues on the radio one day. There was a rain delay and the two commentators (one of them was Warren Smith now at Foxsports) stopped talking about baseball after a few minutes and started debating the make-up of the Aus cricket team’s middle order and whether or not Adam Gilchrist should be brought into the team as a batsmen now or wait to bring him as Heals’ replacement as wickie. If the commentators at your matches care more about your main rival than you, you’re not going to go far].
I watched Channel 10’ ABL coverage regularly and part of me still wishes to see the sport played at a semi-professional level. From memory the teams were
Brisbane Bandits – they played at ANZ with the field oriented west-east. The crowd was in the western grandstand.
Gold Coast Cougars – played at Carrara, which was a decent field but still a crap stadium.
Newcastle Somethings – played at Marathon (EAS). The home plate was in the SW corner of the stadium with the crowd on the Southern Hill and the main grandstand. The field had a very short left field. A very common problem for the northern state teams.
Sydney Blues – initially played at the old Showgrounds where they had a 10,000 crowd for a championship winning game. Moved to Parramatta stadium where the field was oriented from the SE corner with an incredibly short right field. The new showgrounds was to be their permanent home and the best baseball stadium in the country but the league fell down around them before they had played many games.
Melbourne Reds – played at Moorabin which was pretty much derelict. Field was oriented west-east.
Melbourne Monarchs – played at Altona, which was the only purpose built baseball stadium at the time IIRC.
http://www.austadiums.com/stadiums/stadiums.php?id=70
Adelaide Giants – played at Norwood Oval
Perth Heat – At some field I remember but can’t name. It was a suburban oval partially developed into a cheap baseball stadium. They later moved to the WACA which installed a replaceable diamond for them in front of the Inverarity Stand.
Link to a page about Dave Nilsson’s International Baseball League that replaced the ABL but did even worse. I can’t recall hearing anything about this at the time.
http://www.australianbaseballhistory.we ... tional.htm
Link to the Aus Baseball Federation’s site:
http://www.baseball.com.au/
Link to the ABF’s vision for the future. It reads exactly like any plan conceived by any other type of struggling organisation. Nothing of any note has happened in the last two years and there aren’t any Frank Lowy’s rootin’ for baseball AFAIK.
http://www.baseball.com.au/site/basebal ... 3Notes.pdf
A link that demonstrates that not everything about Australian baseball kulchaaa comes from Seppoland:
http://www.australianbaseballhistory.we ... 0Lingo.htm
So what does everyone else remember? Did anyone go to any games? Heard anything about the sport’s future? Anything? Anyone? Dust? Anyone?
Personally I’d like to see baseball back in some form, but not for it to succeed too much. I told you it was a perverse attitude. Cricket’s never filled the summer bat-and-ball intercity sporting niche. For some reason we all want to watch the same team.
I’ve also been more open to baseball when it’s tried to adapt to Australia, rather than be “too American”. I remember a quote in Inside Sport where an Australian international claimed that baseball was better than cricket because it’s harder to hit a ball with a round bat than with a square one. IS’s commented they’d never win over the Australian public with that attitude. Too right. The opposite attitude should be called “the spirit of the Chappell’s” IMO. Here’s a link that demonstrates that not everything about Australian baseball kulchaaa comes from Seppoland:
http://www.australianbaseballhistory.we ... 0Lingo.htm
My interest was kind of perverse: I watched the ABL to see if it would fail. I was going through a period where I was utterly convinced that the Yanks were inexorably destroying Australian culture and that baseball was making inroads in Australia and would therefore eventually displace cricket. [I completely lost that paranoia when listening to the Sydney Blues on the radio one day. There was a rain delay and the two commentators (one of them was Warren Smith now at Foxsports) stopped talking about baseball after a few minutes and started debating the make-up of the Aus cricket team’s middle order and whether or not Adam Gilchrist should be brought into the team as a batsmen now or wait to bring him as Heals’ replacement as wickie. If the commentators at your matches care more about your main rival than you, you’re not going to go far].
I watched Channel 10’ ABL coverage regularly and part of me still wishes to see the sport played at a semi-professional level. From memory the teams were
Brisbane Bandits – they played at ANZ with the field oriented west-east. The crowd was in the western grandstand.
Gold Coast Cougars – played at Carrara, which was a decent field but still a crap stadium.
Newcastle Somethings – played at Marathon (EAS). The home plate was in the SW corner of the stadium with the crowd on the Southern Hill and the main grandstand. The field had a very short left field. A very common problem for the northern state teams.
Sydney Blues – initially played at the old Showgrounds where they had a 10,000 crowd for a championship winning game. Moved to Parramatta stadium where the field was oriented from the SE corner with an incredibly short right field. The new showgrounds was to be their permanent home and the best baseball stadium in the country but the league fell down around them before they had played many games.
Melbourne Reds – played at Moorabin which was pretty much derelict. Field was oriented west-east.
Melbourne Monarchs – played at Altona, which was the only purpose built baseball stadium at the time IIRC.
http://www.austadiums.com/stadiums/stadiums.php?id=70
Adelaide Giants – played at Norwood Oval
Perth Heat – At some field I remember but can’t name. It was a suburban oval partially developed into a cheap baseball stadium. They later moved to the WACA which installed a replaceable diamond for them in front of the Inverarity Stand.
Link to a page about Dave Nilsson’s International Baseball League that replaced the ABL but did even worse. I can’t recall hearing anything about this at the time.
http://www.australianbaseballhistory.we ... tional.htm
Link to the Aus Baseball Federation’s site:
http://www.baseball.com.au/
Link to the ABF’s vision for the future. It reads exactly like any plan conceived by any other type of struggling organisation. Nothing of any note has happened in the last two years and there aren’t any Frank Lowy’s rootin’ for baseball AFAIK.
http://www.baseball.com.au/site/basebal ... 3Notes.pdf
A link that demonstrates that not everything about Australian baseball kulchaaa comes from Seppoland:
http://www.australianbaseballhistory.we ... 0Lingo.htm
So what does everyone else remember? Did anyone go to any games? Heard anything about the sport’s future? Anything? Anyone? Dust? Anyone?
Personally I’d like to see baseball back in some form, but not for it to succeed too much. I told you it was a perverse attitude. Cricket’s never filled the summer bat-and-ball intercity sporting niche. For some reason we all want to watch the same team.
I’ve also been more open to baseball when it’s tried to adapt to Australia, rather than be “too American”. I remember a quote in Inside Sport where an Australian international claimed that baseball was better than cricket because it’s harder to hit a ball with a round bat than with a square one. IS’s commented they’d never win over the Australian public with that attitude. Too right. The opposite attitude should be called “the spirit of the Chappell’s” IMO. Here’s a link that demonstrates that not everything about Australian baseball kulchaaa comes from Seppoland:
http://www.australianbaseballhistory.we ... 0Lingo.htm