Strapping the uni back on

Unconceivable, unbelievable

Grammar like a hammer information receivable

Sent by the Lord, here and abroad

with words well adored now they can't be ignored!

Tougher than Leather - Run-D.M.C.

Yeah, that’s a pretty good way to announce your return from retirement wouldn’t you say? It’s even better if you shout it!

It’s been about 4 years since the Defensive Specialist shut down the Deep in the Hole super computer and many may ask: “You’re a first ballot Hall of Famer, why not hold out the mandatory 5 years, get inducted and then come back?” You’ll soon learn that the Defensive Specialist does not play the game for individual accolades.  With the new and improved ABL on the horizon, the Defensive Specialist had a moral obligation to the baseball loving people of Australia to bring the noise and provide some insight.

The Defensive Specialist has to admit that strapping on the crisp home whites, applying a healthy does of eye black, adjusting the jock strap, tying the spikes and slipping back into the Deep in the Hole ergonomic chair felt oh-so natural. For those of you unawares, Deep in the Hole was primarily a west coast operation with readership a touch under 6 million when it shut down in 2005. The purpose of the blog was to bring a level of coverage and commentary to baseball that is rarely, if ever, seen in this country. In 2009, the Defensive Specialist hopes to establish a similar sort of coverage but on a national scale in preparation for the ABL launch in 2010.

The Australian baseball fan / player is an odd mix at present:

For those of us old enough to remember, the news that the ABL would be reborn with assistance from Major League Baseball (MLB) resulted in flashbacks to the halcyon days of the early 1990’s. Back then crowd numbers swelled, thousands of kids seemed to play teeball over cricket and from time to time, an ABL game would even be shown on television. If you take a look at current MLB rosters, you’ll stumble across various alumni from the ABL days, which indicates the talent levels on offer during that period. Unless you were an owner or administrator of an ABL franchise that haemorrhaged money on a yearly basis, you would have nothing but pleasant memories from that era.

On the other hand, there is a generation of young up and coming baseballers who have never known a nationally run competition with professional elements and implications. Sure, the Claxton Shield has been a national institution, morphing from a weeklong tournament to a series of fixtures across the Australian summer, but in terms of replicating a professional league and having legitimate prospects to compete against it doesn’t measure up.

So to bring the league back to life with a monolith like MLB backing it financially is extremely exciting. Without quoting exact figures, it’s fairly safe to say that the original ABL was a financial black hole. It was not economically sustainable flying teams of 20+ around Australia with fluctuating crowd support, limited sponsorship and poor revenue streams. The league and franchises could not support their existence and without a white knight or even a sugar daddy to prop it up, the league collapsed.

So why would MLB open up their vault and bankroll this thing the Defensive Specialist hears you ask? Great question. Every professional offseason, major league teams send their prospects off to a variety of leagues around the world to continue their development. The very best prospects tend to end up in the Arizona Fall League (AFL) while others head to places like Mexico, Venezuela or the Dominican Republic. The AFL tends to report no problems, but all you need to do is find an Aussie who has played in some place like Venezuela and have them tell you about the 10 kilos they lost due to food poisoning or chronic diarrhoea to understand that living conditions are not always the best. If you stack the conditions up with civil unrest that includes kidnapping, extortion and rioting, you tend to have an environment that MLB clubs don’t want their million dollar athletes / investments playing in.

Why Australia? Have you looked out the window lately? Aside from the tyranny of distance, Australia offers some very appealing aspects to MLB teams and their players. Our summer runs during the US winter, we speak a similar style of English (G’day mate, how’s about we drink some piss and have a root?”), the exchange rate makes it cheaper to send players down under, living conditions are superb, and cultural differences are at a minimum (unless you end up in Adelaide). In fact Australia is a fair replica of the United States – we’re even catching up in the obesity department too, currently trailing the US in percentage of fatties by only 7% (74% of US citizens over 15 are considered obese versus 67% in Australia). What’s not to love? Australia offers MLB teams a safer and more appealing (to the players not from Venezuela, Dominica Republic or Mexico) place to send their investments for more seasoning.

So what’s the advantage to Australian baseball?

Jesus, you’re asking a bunch of questions, The Defensive Specialist likes you’re enthusiasm!

For starters how about the profile of the game climbing from its current status in Australia of about 4% to something substantially higher? With MLB involvement, teams and state associations can direct more of their funds into development and promotion amongst schools and junior sport. It wasn’t long ago that more kids seemed to head towards teeball as their first sport as opposed to cricket. With an increased profile, hopefully we’ll see that again. Getting as many kids into teeball as possible means that the flow into baseball will be higher and perhaps the sport will hold onto a few more of the super athletes that drift off to other codes (obviously there are no super athletes playing cricket) and away from baseball.

On top of that, having MLB teams send down their prospects to play in an Australian league will give our professional players an opportunity year round to play against solid competition. The Defensive Specialist is a firm believer that you get better by playing against the best. How many times do you see Australian pro guys come back and their only preparation for the next season is a handful of games at the state league level and another dozen or so games at the Claxton Shield? Hardly the ideal build-up to a pro season. Imagine how much better our lads would be if they could add 40-60 games to their resume each year, playing in a professionally run and organised league that pits them not only against the best professional Australian players (and best amateur Australian players) but also against professional prospects sent down specifically by their MLB franchises to compete and get better?

Heading towards 1500 words in the first post, the Defensive Specialist had better wrap it up and tell you what’s in store. First off, the Defensive Specialist will be live and exclusive from Geelong this weekend as the Claxton Shield Champions - Perth Heat take on the Victorian Aces. You can expect a detailed breakdown of the games as well as some interesting and amusing insights. Moving forward, the Defensive Specialist hopes to provide you with interviews and information from the people driving the move towards the ABL- administrators, players, coaches and general managers which will keep you up to speed with what is going on behind the scenes and out on the field.

It’s an exciting time for Australian Baseball, so climb on the very broad shoulders of the Defensive Specialist and let him carry you along for the ride!

Send questions or comments to thedefensivespecialist@gmail.com