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Efforts by Essendon Baseball Club to tackle the difficult issue of alcohol management in community sport have resulted in the club receiving a Level 3 accreditation award under the Australian Drug Foundation’s Good Sports program Click to view full Media release.
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Summer Baseball
THE CHANGE TO SUMMER BASEBALLExcerpts From Time and Game: The History of Australian Baseball By Joe Clark Summer baseball brought the biggest change that Australian baseball had ever experienced. Since the first teams were organised after the Spalding Tour, there were groups within Australian baseball attempting to start summer competitions. Because baseball was a warm weather sport in every other place, for some it made sense to play summer baseball in Australia too. Never in the history of the game in Australia had a single issue ignited the players as the debate over moving the main competition to summer. There was considerable opposition because since its earliest days in Australia, baseball was the winter training sport for cricket and a change of season could mean the loss of many players.
Summer competitions had been played in NSW in the National Baseball Association between 1912 – 1945 and WA and SA held summer invitational tournaments in the 1960s which proved to many that summer was a better season for the game. Debate had raged for years but changes had not been seriously attempted since 1945. Western Australia had done it earlier in 1963 after their Night Baseball series ended, with the ACT going to summer in 1967. Victoria allowed a summer competition to run in tandem with winter, starting in 1964 but it was never designed to replace the main winter competition. Nevertheless, there was often debate over the issue and many players who were not tied to cricket saw summer as a better option. Bad winter weather was also a key issue in keeping the summer baseball issue alive.
In 1968 South Australia made a momentous decision to go to summer baseball. While the three remaining states eventually followed South Australia’s decision, the SABL decision was because South Australia wanted to stand alone without cricket. South Australia’s decision was later seen as one of the most forward thinking decisions in Australian baseball history.
Greatly assisting the summer baseball lobby, the 1969 Claxton Shield was held in Melbourne in July, referred to by the Australian Baseball Council as “10 days of the worst possible weather”. The Western Australia Baseball Association immediately demanded a summer series to avoid the perennial poor winter weather, particularly in Melbourne: 'It seems a continuing shame that so much money, effort and time should go into the presentation of the Major Australian Series under adverse conditions not conducive of the highest standard.’ WA team captain Lindsay Moyle, reported,
'Never during the WA Winter Series... would any player have played in conditions such as was experienced this year. Our players... would still play in these conditions, but I feel that they play with the thought of getting the game over with and getting out of the bitterly cold wind and rain.’
The ABC leaders had had enough. ABC Secretary Bob Black of Victoria declared, 'The lesson from this Series surely must be in the need for future Series to be staged under summer conditions...’[i] After the 1970 Claxton Shield at Oriole Park, Sydney, SA and WA, held their own summer season after the series.
In 1971, the ABC passed a national resolution to convert to summer baseball gradually over several years. Only Victoria was split over the issue of summer baseball, with some club administrators stubbornly hanging onto the traditional concept of winter baseball on behalf of summer cricket.
Many cricketers playing winter baseball had difficult decisions to make when their state changed to summer baseball. For some, it was easy – baseball had always been their ‘keep-fit-for-cricket’ winter sport, and now it was a summer sport, they would find something else. However, for many others, the decision was agonising. Not only were families and friendships affected by the subsequent decisions, along with club traditions, but economic factors became an issue. Until this time, cricket and baseball had traditionally been amateur sports, with cricket offering some hope of professional careers for the best players. Now, whether to continue with cricket in the summer or abandon it for baseball became, for the leading players, a decision on how to advance a potential professional career. Naturally enough, most of the top players stayed with cricket. A few chose summer baseball and made a decision thus ending any chances of becoming a world class cricketer.
There was no denying the special relationship Australian baseball always had with cricket, but the basis of this relationship was that baseball would always be the subservient, junior partner to cricket. Cricket would get the first options on players, grounds and funding. As Australian baseball players travelled overseas, starting in 1968, and entertained overseas players in Australia, there was always a two-headed question: “Why does Australia play baseball in their winter? Is the standard of Australian baseball so low that it can only be played when it doesn’t conflict with cricket?” Clearly, the days of ‘keep-fit-for-cricket-in-winter’ were over, when Victoria became the final state to go to summer baseball.
All states continued to maintain a winter competition also, for as Victorian President Ron Smith said, “You can play baseball whenever you like and we will administer it for you. There was no differentiation between winter or summer. This ensured no one was estranged from the game.” This decision forever changed the game in Australia. What started as a curious American import in the 19th century, had finally become an Australian sport in its own right. It was played, maintained, administered, supported and attended by Australians, most of whom were detached from organised cricket. Australian baseball proclaimed it’s independence from cricket in the 1970s and would determine its own course for the future, for better or worse.
With the end of nearly 100 years of winter baseball for cricketers, an impressive list of Australian cricketers playing winter baseball, can be compiled from the earliest days. These would include: Ned Gregory, Hugh Massie, Monty Noble, Victor Trumper, Sid Gregory, Harry Donnan. Alan Kippax, Bill Ponsford, Vernon Radsford, Charlie Puckett, Ken Gulliver, Neil Harvey, Ian Craig, Norm O’Neill, Greg and Ian Chappell and Alan and John Border. Despite these cricket greats who played baseball, the sport had turned an important corner. Never again would Australian baseball be the winter conditioner for cricket. From now on, it would rise or fall on its own merits.
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