Why you should care Major League Baseball is in town
· Australia fall short against LA Dodgers
Baseball is coming to Australia. But it’s doubtful you care.
The interest from punters in the game is woeful, as even the CEO of the Australian Baseball League Peter Wermuth concedes.
“There’s definitely a disconnect between the level of achievement and the quality of Australian baseball and the attention it gets both publically and in the media at the moment.”
Of all the places in the world where Major League Baseball could find thousands of fans, two of the league’s biggest rivals – the LA Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks – have chosen Sydney as their season-opener.
Unlike the glitz of basketball and the corporate muscle of gridiron, baseball is an old world game
Why not Japan, where it’s the national sport, or absolutely anywhere else that “batter up” and not “howzat” is the cry?
According to Mr Wermuth, we’ve been chosen for our deep connection to the game, and a wealth of local talent, in spite of the apathy from the general public.
He freely admits that publicity is the main reason for this brief Major League visitation.
“At the end of the day, what we really want is more people involved in the sport, whether that’s in participation or just as a fan coming out to watch.”
It’s a costly gamble. It took $2 million dollars, 250 tonnes of clay and months of planning to transform one of the world’s most historic cricket grounds into a stunning MLB-approved baseball field.
So, with all that money spent on getting you to pay attention, will you care? And why should you?
1. Old World Charm
Unlike the glitz of basketball and the corporate muscle of gridiron, baseball is an old world game.
The uniforms have hardly changed. The songs are quaint. And aside from the quintessential catching mitt, very little new-fangled technology has intruded into the game.
It has even withstood the insistent march of television. While the league adopted limited instant replays in 2008, there have been few other changes to accommodate the small screen – unlike our own sports, where the AFL and Rugby shape themselves around ad breaks, and cricket has morphed into shorter, more TV-friendly forms.
2. We have Australians in Major League Baseball
You won’t have heard of them, but there are some surprisingly successful, and well-paid, Aussies in Major League Baseball.
Thirty-one Australians have crossed over to bat and pitch in the big leagues, with Grant Balfour the most renowned.
Grant is an “all-star” in the United States, according to Mr Wermuth, and is “higher paid than most Australian athletes”.
“Last year, when he played for the Oakland Athletics, whenever he would enter the stadium, in particular during the play-off runs, 40,000 fans would go crazy. He’s an absolute fan favourite.
“He’s one of the top five Australian athletes in any sport, and yet he could walk down the street here in Sydney and nobody would know it.”
Oakland Athletics pitcher Grant Balfour. Photo: Getty
3. Long history in Australia
It comes as a shock that baseball has a long history here in Australia. It is thought to have been first played on the goldfields of Ballarat in 1856, only a few years after the invention of the game.
“Australia has played this game forever. We have the second-longest running, continuously awarded shield in the Claxton Shield,” said Mr Wermuth.
“Within years of the game being established in the United States it was exported here to Australia with Americans coming here for the gold rush.”
4. Anniversary of an historic game
The Sunday game at the SCG between Los Angeles and Arizona will mark the 100th anniversary of an exhibition game played by the Chicago White Sox and the New York Giants on 13 January, 1914.
5. Famous cricketers have loved the game
According to Mr Wermuth, several famous cricketers have been ardent baseball fans.
“Alan Border played. Ian Chappell, I think, played until two years ago.”
Both Greg and Ian Chappell represented their state in the Claxton Shield, which was the premier baseball competition in Australia until subsumed by what is now the Australian Baseball League.
7. Everyone else is mad for it
Apart from the US, baseball is the national sport of many of our Asia-Pacific neighbours, namely Japan, Korea, and Taiwan.
“Baseball is by far the largest sport in the Australian time zone,” said Mr Wermuth.
8. You could get scouted
Many of the scouts for the Asia-Pacific are based in Australia, and are frequently on the look out for hot new talent.
So if you’re desperate to become a professional sports star, baseball might just offer the best odds, given the lack of local interest.
“A lot of them are based here, and so a lot of them have spent a lot of time looking for talent in this country. And a lot of Australians get picked up and move over,” said Mr Wermuth.
Baseball has been a rich mine for Hollywood. Photo: AP
9. It’s a great game for kids
Age, gender and body type are irrelevant to the starter leagues, making baseball a perfect game for youngsters.
And the fact that it is a (mostly) non-contact sport, making it relatively safe.
“Baseball, unlike any other sport, provides an amazing pathway from the youngest age to the top,” said Mr Wermuth.
Now that Australia has joined the Little League World Series just last year, under-11s have a chance of competing with teams across the world.
And if good enough, teenagers can even get a free university education in the States to play the sport.
10. Follow the money
If money counts for anything, baseball is one of the wealthiest.
It has some of “the best paid athletes of any sport”, according to Mr Wermuth.
At a sale price of $2.2 billion, the LA Dodgers are the most expensive sporting team ever sold.
11. Relaxed pace
Mr Wermuth compares the atmosphere of baseball games to those of cricket.
“It sort of tells a story that you don’t need to be a part of at all times,” he said. “You can enjoy the experience of going to the ball park without necessarily paying attention to what is happening on the field.”
The Wall Street Journal found that about 90 per cent of baseball is just standing around – and no one seems to mind.
Just like we still love five-day test matches.
12. Wealth of strategy
If relaxed spectating isn’t your thing, baseball also offers a wealth of strategy and statistics.
Many fans invest their own methods of scoring the intricate games, and religiously memorise the stats.
“Baseball is the richest sport when it comes to statistics,” said Mr Wermuth.
13. Family friendly
Baseball also has a long tradition as a family game.
“It’s a generational game. It’s parents bringing their kids. It’s grandfathers bringing their granddaughters. That’s really what we’re trying to achieve,” said Mr Wermuth.
14. Bitter rivalry of the Dodgers and Diamondbacks
The Dodgers and Diamondbacks share a deep and mutual enmity, as several on-pitch tussles confirm.
It’s known as ‘emptying the benches’ – when both teams flood onto the field to throw a few fake haymakers and sort out their differences.
“They fought closely last year, and they fought literally as well,” said Mr Wermuth.
If that’s your kind of thing, you could be in luck on Sunday.
15. Sign of things to come
There is “very much the possibility” that MLB would return to Australia regularly if it is a big success, probably on a regular cycle of every four years as in parts of Asia, according to Mr Wermuth.
16. Regularity of games
You can watch baseball on six nights of the week in many parts of the US.
While we aren’t unaccustomed to such regularity, and haven’t managed to replicate it in our local leagues, it could be just the thing to sate our voracious sporting appetites.
“The Friday night crowd might be the corporates. The Saturday night crowd might be … the hardcore fans, and the Sundays might be the families,” Mr Wermuth explained.
17. It’s the first game to count
If Mr Wermuth is to be believed, this will be the first time that any international sporting league has played an in-season game in Australia for points.
“Forget about whether you care about baseball or not, it’s not like the English Premier League has ever played a game that counts here, or any other foreign sporting league. That in itself is really exciting,” he said.
