Late in 2007, we published a series of "reality-check" articles in the WebBall insider meant to temper the irrepressible enthusiasm and unrealistic expectations of some coaches and players in countries where baseball has grabbed a toe-hold but is still a long way from being a major youth activity. The following was an insightful response from someone who might have accepted what we said, but not without another point of view.

by Peter Schmidt

I've beeen a happy reader of your newsletter for some years. Until now, I've been comfortable listening rather than talking. That changed after I read your words aimed at an unnamed Australian subscriber who prompted your Q&A response to him/her earlier this month regarding the International Game. I have no problem with the thrust of your response, which was basically that Australia isn't even a blip on the baseball radar. You're right - It isn't.

However, I did want to point out an area where a couple of Aussies are indeed making a difference. That's in Boston, in the front office. Jon Deeble, the current Australian national coach, and Craig Shipley, a former Major Leaguer, both have day jobs in the RedSox Organisation. They've indeed moved on from "love of the game" to "paid by the game"

Deeble looks after Pacific Rim scouting and manages a Single-A affiliate in his spare time (LOL). Shipley, the VP of International Scouting, probably gets to claim much of the kudos for bringing Dice-K to Boston, as well as the exciting Hideki Okajima. The latter is a better bargain imho, but that's a whole other story.

So what if we can't deliver more than one or two opening day players to the USA? With the sport's profile here (less than 50,000 social players {half+ of whom are kids} in a population of 20 million sports-mad zealots who mainly concentrate on cricket and the eggball codes: perhaps 800 semi-elite local amateurs if that many: and a few dozen playing professionally in the US Minors and Asia), we're still in good shape. If we can beat Japan for a silver medal at Athens (in which Dice-K pitched, incidentally), and Venezuela in the current World Cup, our elite players are doing fine in the tournament format of their choice.

So here's the thing ...


I like the fact that our local baseball community is small enough that most budding elite youngsters personally know somebody who is playing professionally, and can thus talk to them about what's needed to make it. And just how hard it really is. And the yawning gap between a "professional" in something like AA or AAA, and ML headliners like A-Rod. Laundry bills, for a start. All-night bus trips. A fast food diet. A social life consisting only of trips to the gym. Sharing a hotel room because of cost, not because it breeds "camaraderie". And in hotels that wouldn't know what a single "star" is, let alone five of them.

The upside is getting a buzz the first time you see your own name on a locker, or a glove, or a bat, or anything except your playing top. Or the first time you see your name in print, even if it's only on the website of the local Class A team in an article that was really about somebody else anyway.


Keeping our aspirations in line with our talent is a constant battle. Only those young men who've been there can properly explain this to kids who might be only a few years younger. I'm grateful that our Aussie professionals are willing to do so:- in a kind way, without dashing the hopes and dreams of the youngsters, but with the right dose of realism.

I like the fact that we [Oz] have a non-zero number of players in the Majors at any one time. At least one is enough to provide a role model for the current generation. None at all is, of course, not enough.
I like the fact that our most successful baseball "people" are in administration or retired (Australia has had 25 players reach the US Majors, of whom only a couple finished the 2007 season on ML rosters) rather than playing. That makes most of them available year-round, at home, to work with our kids.


I hate the fact that every season, I have to speak to PPs ("Proud Parents"), most of whom are convinced that their kid just needs to put in another few hours of training each week {often at the expense of schoolwork or simply doing non-baseball kid-things} in order to make the Majors, sign a nine-figure contract and keep the whole family in milk & honey & the latest Ferrari for the rest of their lives. Yeah, right.

Finally, your phrase in that newsletter " ... enjoy every opportunity [etc]...." is pure gold. If I could bottle that and encourage all of my PPs to have a small drink of it, my life at least would be a lot easier.