[Izz]

It's important, at this young juncture, to reflect for a few moments not just on the statistical aspect of the fledgling AUNZBL, now nearly 5 seasons old, but also on the effect it was having on the communities the teams played and lived in and, indeed, on the whole country (or countries, as they were then).

We can do this now, particularly, because there is much more available data to sift through than even a season back. News agency articles, personal blogs, videos. Pictures of smiling fans standing beside smiling ballplayers. Archived footage of sports announcers holding back the results of the day's games until the other presenters begged to hear them. And much more.

Baseball epitomized many of the things war-weary Australian and New Zealand citizens admired. Tenacity was rewarded, sometimes more-so than raw talent. Hope played a huge role. Not once ever does a baseball player go to the plate in the bottom of the ninth, 10 runs down, 2 out and none on, and think that there is no hope. No, rather, they fight that they can get on-base with the hope that their doing so will spark a rally, and they'll pull of something remarkable. Today, yes, back then, especially.

Hard work too, was important for any baller, and equally as prized in day-to-day life. In New Zealand, South Island fans loved Oamaru-born Stewart Warwick, even though he played for an Australian team. In Warwick, born in Oamaru pre-War when it was a sleepy, quirky town quite happy to meander on in its own way, New Zealand found an underdog success story. And while Warwick, by all accounts, wasn't the sharpest man to ever tie a boot, he was affable, and spent most of his off-seasons back home, hunting and fishing and riding. Often, Warwick would get more screen-time from the South Island news-sites than any of the Cowboys players.

Sp yes, the public took to baseball like ducks to water. They thrived on it. While the earliest data can't be completely trusted, it appears that average game attendances in the opening 2 seasons were around the 11,000 to 12,000 mark. Only 3 seasons later, and the average attendances were nearly 22,500. Many more regularly watched games online. Baseball played a huge role in the rejuvenation of Australia and New Zealand's spirits.

Let us not forget too the rejuvenating role baseball had on the early players. Many of these men had experienced horror and tragedy, fighting in a war their countries didn't start or even support, to a scale that is hard to comprehend. Through baseball they found an outlet, a way to hold onto their fragmented sanity.

Joel Grimes, 1B for the Auckland Metros, was a prime example. Drafted into the war before Australia finally pulled out, he witnessed his whole squad get killed by a shoulder-launched missile. He too was badly wounded, and when found a few hours later by other troops, was described as "staring off unseeing into the distance, covered in gore, cradling his detached C.O's head like it was a baby."

Grimes found a release in baseball. A slugging first-baseman who regularly hit 30HR a season, he said in one interview after he retired that while he could never forget the horror of what he'd experienced, "when I watched a baseball I'd hit sail deep into the centre-field stands, I had some sort of peace. It was like, in those seconds, the world was whole again."

While many might laugh off comments like that as overblown or hyperbolic, it does seem from the historical data that many ball players found the game just as beneficial as any other form of therapy.