With Compliments of the Chef

The Defensive Specialist was faced with a conundrum on Wednesday evening – attend a sneak preview of Sex and the City 2 or sit down with the new CEO of the Australian Baseball League Peter Wermuth.

And what a movie it was! Full of glitz, glamour and high fashion….

Ok, so you know the Defensive Specialist well enough to know that Carrie Bradshaw wasn’t going to stand in the way of shooting the breeze with the head honcho of the league we’ve all been waiting for. The Defensive Specialist slipped on a strappy pair of Jimmy Choo’s as a concession for missing the film and sat down with Wermuth to get a handle on how things are shaping up.

You may notice that the following give and take doesn’t match the Defensive Specialist’s usual format. That’s not because the Defensive Specialist plied Peter with copious amounts of booze so he’d spill the beans, rather the conversation just became a good old-fashioned 8-hour rambling discussion over a sumptuous meal. The Defensive Specialist did not record the conversation so what transpires is the Defensive Specialist summarising key topics (and adding in numerous references to how awesome Deep in the Hole is)

But first, some background on the new CEO.

Peter Wermuth came from Germany to play college baseball in the United States, returning to Deutschland to play and coach after graduation. As is often the case, matters of the heart (cue Air Supply) drew him back to the US where eventually the real world knocked and he entered the work force. His first stint with MLB was in 2005 as an advisor to what was essentially the CFO. This role involved working with the powerful player’s union to negotiate the collective bargaining agreement (focusing heavily on revenue sharing).

Peter was always interested in International baseball and had wanted to set up a professional league in Germany. With this in mind he moved into Major League Baseball International where he worked on new league development. The ABL evolved as a realistic opportunity and as it began to take on a life of its own it required more resources. In 2008 he became part of the joint venture between MLB and the ABL.

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As we kicked off our feast with a tasty amuse-bouche, the Defensive Specialist delved into why MLB would want to pump millions into baseball in a country on the other side of the planet.

There are number of reasons, but primarily to showcase Australian baseball talent. With so many young Australians playing professional baseball, what better way to showcase their talent and use this to draw more people into the game.

It was important for the Defensive Specialist to get an update on how the franchises were shaping up, specifically Canberra. After the entrées were cleared away Peter had this to say:

Canberra is still looking for a General Manager, after an initial offer was turned down. The key is to find the right person. The role of the GM is primarily sales and marketing with player interaction handled for the most part by the coaching staff. The GM has to be in the market, promoting the team and increasing the profile of the product. That person has to be able to draw new fans into the game. That’s why it is critical to have the right person in the role.

In better news, the government has provided a million dollars to upgrade the Narrabundah facility which may very well turn out to be one of the nicer facilities when it is completed. Player safety is critical so upgrades to lighting and the field are important.

Perth is without a GM but we are close to appointing someone in that role.

Queensland has Paul Gonzalez in the General Managers role. Facilities are still somewhat of a question mark. We’d like to have them at RNA showgrounds but can use Windsor (the facility used last year) if we can get the necessary upgrades. It may be a situation where Queensland splits time between facilities.

Victoria is the biggest question mark and perhaps the biggest challenge. Victoria Park is a ground that would be good to play on but we have to make sure that local residents are comfortable. Residents and the council need to be convinced that hosting an ABL franchise won’t be a disruption. We would need to demonstrate security and crowd control as well as monitoring the impact of the lights.

Geelong is a great baseball facility but does not have the infrastructure (seating, club rooms etc) to support a professional league. 

With main course arriving, the Defensive Specialist was keen to know MLB’s expansion plans.

We’d like to expand but quick and aggressive growth will absolutely depend on crowd support. The league must get to a breakeven point before any additional teams would be considered. There are a number of areas that could conceivably support ABL franchises – Geelong, Newcastle, Sydney (2 teams), Lismore. But the big determinant is crowd support. A crowd of 2500 per game is required to break even which means that we either grow junior baseball because these are the additional people who will be attending or we will have to draw from outside the baseball community.

The Defensive Specialist shook his head at no mention of Tasmania. 

Major League baseball began its investment last year so the Defensive Specialist wanted to know what did and didn’t work in Peter’s opinion.

Norwood (South Australia’s home field) was by far the biggest success story. The field was central to the city and enclosed which gave it a real baseball feel. South Australia had great support and atmosphere. The council there needed to be shown that baseball in this facility could work and they absolutely did. A partnership was created with the council and the football club which was great.

We learned a lot of little operational things like scheduling but having the teams work collaboratively and share best practice was a real benefit.

Not a great deal of branding and marketing went into the Claxton Shield last year and that really showed in the crowds that we drew. We definitely expected to draw more crowds and in places like Victoria where there wasn’t a full time facility it was tough to get people to come along. We were wondering if it was viable and what more we could do.

Main course was delicious and the Defensive Specialist was having a tough time maintaining Peter’s focus as he devoured his meal, however the Defensive Specialist pressed on asking about the Assistant GM’s that each team had last year, all of which had a minor league baseball background.

It worked in some instances and not in others. Using people on a temporary assignment didn’t work but provided fresh thoughts and knowledge transfer. We’ll probably scale it back this year and have one or two people working with all of the franchises with a greater mix of Australians and Americans. MLB is supporting and utilising available expertise to run the league.

The Defensive Specialist was very interested to know how US professional players will be allocated or assigned to teams in the ABL. After polishing off his palate cleansing sorbet  (compliments of the chef) the Defensive Specialist posed the question to Peter:

Professional players will be allocated on a needs basis. There will not be a one-on-one affiliation and the reason for that is that there are so many Australians playing professional baseball that we would have multiple MLB teams represented on each franchise. We want to keep local players playing in front of their home crowds and family and friends. If a team requires 3 starting pitchers, then we will guide starting pitchers to that team no matter what Major League club they belong to.

Every state has players and coaches who have links to Major League teams so there will be situations where clubs may want their players to head in certain directions.

The Defensive Specialist probed on the interest levels of Major League teams sending their prospects to Australia:

Almost every club would be interested. In fact, I don’t think we could accommodate all of the requests for player placements. It is important to remember that we will not be displacing local professional talent.

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With only dessert to come, the Defensive Specialist’s mouth began to water at the sweet treats to follow. Your loyal reader will have to tune in again at Deep in the Hole to get your treats as part 2 contains thoughts on Aussie player allocation, player salaries, coaches, the schedule and of course the ABL launch. Stay hungry.