Australian Baseball League

[guy41]

Anyone remember the ABL? I'm trying to remember the teams.

Adelaide Giants, Melbourne Monarchs, Melbourne Reds, Sydney Storm, Perth Heat, Brisbane Bandits, Hunter Eagles, Gold Coast Cougars.....canberra bushrangers i think?

Anyone know any more?

[redback_original]

it's a pity the abl is not around anymore... not that i did get to any of the games... always thought it would boom like the nbl did in the late 80s early 90s...

i remember the daikyo dolphins...

[cam]

And the Melbourne Reds began as the Waverley Reds, and played at Waverley Park, before moving to Moorabbin (St Kilda's ground). I remember seeing games on TV when I was younger. They played at some good venues like Waverley, Carrara, Parramatta Stadium (shithouse for baseball, but good in general) etc. And I remember the first game at the Sydney Baseball Stadium (now the Sydney Showground) where they got over 10,000 for memory. What year did the league wind up?

[Waz]

No-one ever used Altona, Cam?

I used to get along to a few Giants games as a teenager... but only because their games were held at my football club's home ground, and I spent a lot of time there as a kid...

[guy41]

BallPark, that thing in the middle of a cow paddock. who were the daikyo dolphins?

[Jeffles]

Daikyo Dolphins were a Gold COast franchise owned by the Daikyo corportation, a Japanese company. It was thought they could emulate the Japanese formula of sports clubs being owned by businesses and atttract the tourists and locals to Carrara. It failed. Daikyo became Gold Coast Dolphins and he Gold Coast Cougars I think.

[Jeffles]

Further to my last post, the Sydney Storm were the Sydney Blues. There was also a team called Parramatta Patriots. There was also a Sydney Wave team based at Belmore. Sydney teams played at Oriole Park in Aurburn, Parramatta, Belmore, Homebush and Concord Oval.

Melborne Monarchs played at Altona. Brisbane played at RNA Showgrounds then ANZ Stadium. Perth Heat played at Parry Park then WACA. Hunter Eagles at Marathon Stadium then Maitland Showground.

Costs were the major issue. I actually loved ABL. Giot me following baseball. I don't anymore. There was a websitte with all this. Can't remember it though. A search will bring it up.

[Tonic]

The "Stillwell Giants" as they were known (named after the major Ford delaer in Adelaide) played at Norwood Oval, home of the Norwood FC (Redlegs) in the SANFL.

[argee]

Gold Coast Cougars were finally known as East Coast Cougars. When they were the Daikyo Dolphins they had a huge following with televised games on frequently, helped by their successes in the early 1990's. At the time I would look at maps trying to figure out exactly where 'Daikyo' was on the Gold Coast.

[guy41]

http://www.users.bigpond.com/goreds/HONOURS.htm

Here is a bit of history

[Egan]

The Perth Heat in its last year played at the eastern suburbs ground of Bassendean, this only lasted one year and the comp was disbanded and they formed a new competition, the Western Heelers where very successful, in yet it failed again mainly due to poor crowds the whole comp failed. I know in Perth the heat were supported at the atart but interest waned when they became a little bit boring, the novelty factor wore off. Big crowds in other cities?

[guy41]

Giants game brought about 1k. Replaced by the Southern Bite in the Claxton Shield with QLD Country Rams, Victoria Aces...pretty boring tournament. I think Godl Coast were most successful.

[Waz]

I went to a Giants game which attracted about 2500 i think, but yeah, normally there'd be around 800-1200 ppl there...

[redback_original]

the reds were pretty well supported

[guy41]

What ground is that?