OOTP Developments Forums - View Single Post - Baseball Down Under

gregisawesome13 · 08-27-2016, 02:13 PM

A Brief History

Baseball was brought to Australia in the 1850s and 1860s during the Victorian Gold Rush. In the early 1890s interstate games where played, mainly between Tasmania, New South Wales, and Victoria. In fact a championship was held in Hobart, Tasmania in 1910 which New South Wales came out on top of. In 1888 Al Spalding, owner of the Chicago White Sox, brought his own team of Americans down under to showcase the game. In 1897 a team of Australian baseball players toured the US and some went on to tour England. While national leagues started in the mid 30s, many did not take off and baseball failed to establish itself as a premier sport. Thus state leagues remained the focus.

The state focus of the leagues made travel easy, regional competition and rivalries grew as well. The Claxton Shield, the national competition, was started in 1934. Each state at the time sent a team to the host city to compete. Over time teams from Western Australia, Queensland, the Northern Territory, and even the Australian Capital Territory joined the competition.The last competition took place in 1988 as the Australian Baseball League was introduced. The Claxton Shield took place now as the final series of the competition, as the championship.

The first iteration of the Australian Baseball League ran from 1988 to 1998. With the league running out of money, licenses being purchased, sold, or relocated due to attendance and financial reasons, David Nilsson, a former Brewers player, purchased the league for $5 Million. David Nilsson created the International Baseball League of Australia. The IBLA consisted of state teams, to national teams from Taiwan, International All Stars to MLB All Stars. Finding little success it folded in 2002.Thus the state v state format of the Claxton Shield took place once again. This ran for 7 years from 2003 to 2010. Seeing the Australian National Team win Silver in the 2004 Olympics did signal to Baseball Australia that this was a sport the nation could be successful in and one they could invest in and see results. In turn, Little League springs up in 2007, and the Australian Baseball Federation - commonly referred to as Baseball Australia, begins to see whether than can create a League that goes beyond its current development of players.

Thus in 2010 the Australian Baseball Federation partners with Major League Baseball to form the Australian Baseball League. The ABL is partially owned by the MLB and partially owned by Baseball Australia. The Australian Baseball League started with 5 teams, state teams from Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. Canberra was the last team added in a league that originally was rumored to have up to 10 entrants for its inaugural year.
The past five years have had future major league players come through during the Australian summer.

Below are the results form the past 5 years of competition.

And that brings us to the preparation for our current season.

08-27-2016, 02:13 PM	#1
gregisawesome13 Minors (Triple A) Join Date: May 2016 Posts: 200	Baseball Down Under - Reestablished 2016 A Brief History Baseball was brought to Australia in the 1850s and 1860s during the Victorian Gold Rush. In the early 1890s interstate games where played, mainly between Tasmania, New South Wales, and Victoria. In fact a championship was held in Hobart, Tasmania in 1910 which New South Wales came out on top of. In 1888 Al Spalding, owner of the Chicago White Sox, brought his own team of Americans down under to showcase the game. In 1897 a team of Australian baseball players toured the US and some went on to tour England. While national leagues started in the mid 30s, many did not take off and baseball failed to establish itself as a premier sport. Thus state leagues remained the focus. The state focus of the leagues made travel easy, regional competition and rivalries grew as well. The Claxton Shield, the national competition, was started in 1934. Each state at the time sent a team to the host city to compete. Over time teams from Western Australia, Queensland, the Northern Territory, and even the Australian Capital Territory joined the competition.The last competition took place in 1988 as the Australian Baseball League was introduced. The Claxton Shield took place now as the final series of the competition, as the championship. The first iteration of the Australian Baseball League ran from 1988 to 1998. With the league running out of money, licenses being purchased, sold, or relocated due to attendance and financial reasons, David Nilsson, a former Brewers player, purchased the league for $5 Million. David Nilsson created the International Baseball League of Australia. The IBLA consisted of state teams, to national teams from Taiwan, International All Stars to MLB All Stars. Finding little success it folded in 2002.Thus the state v state format of the Claxton Shield took place once again. This ran for 7 years from 2003 to 2010. Seeing the Australian National Team win Silver in the 2004 Olympics did signal to Baseball Australia that this was a sport the nation could be successful in and one they could invest in and see results. In turn, Little League springs up in 2007, and the Australian Baseball Federation - commonly referred to as Baseball Australia, begins to see whether than can create a League that goes beyond its current development of players. Thus in 2010 the Australian Baseball Federation partners with Major League Baseball to form the Australian Baseball League. The ABL is partially owned by the MLB and partially owned by Baseball Australia. The Australian Baseball League started with 5 teams, state teams from Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth, and Sydney. Canberra was the last team added in a league that originally was rumored to have up to 10 entrants for its inaugural year. The past five years have had future major league players come through during the Australian summer. Below are the results form the past 5 years of competition. And that brings us to the preparation for our current season. Last edited by gregisawesome13; 08-27-2016 at 02:37 PM.