Baseball exists in many forms in Australia. There is a professional league of 8 teams representing most of the major cities in the country. There are also a number of youth leagues, little leagues that carry through various teenage levels. Craig Shipley was the first Aussie I know of that signed, when scouted by MLB teams. Australia is scouted by many major league teams and have produced a few players including Craig Shipley who signed with the Dodgers in the '80's.
Carins
Our Dodgertown team took Continental airlines through Hawaii to Cairns in the tropical zone located in the north east portion of Queensland.
After an hour or so of immigration, we took a bus ride through town to
our hotel. The town was mostly residential with a few blocks of
commercial district and several large hotels for tourists.
Caines is a popular access to the barrier reef since it is close to the
land at this point. The architecture consisted of mostly metal hip
roofs with covered porches.
Our hotel was plush with comfortable rooms and beautifully crafted wood work in the lobby. The food and service was excellent.
After 14 hours of flying into the sun, we had no reality of time so we went out on the town that night, eating, drinking and dancing. We went to the Roos Brothers Club where there was continuous showing of the Blues Brothers movie and sound track, that was all they played all night long. Locals all dressed like Jake and Elwood. This was my first look at aboriginals. My impression is that they suffer the same fate as American Indians and are unjustly looked upon by the locals as second class citizens. They could be seen mostly hanging around streets and beaches around the downtown area, but not much in the suburbs.
The next day offered an afternoon practice where we developed our own fan club of some early teenage kids. We traded baseball cards with some and selected a couple to be our batboys for that evenings game. They were having their championship playoffs that day and the final game of the day was ours, beginning at twilight. We beat the local team handily, 16-1. It was strange pitching from a mound made of what seemed like volcanic rock. Ken McMullen from the Dodgers was playing with us and we let our bus driver who had never played before, pinch hit for him. The evening ended with a bar-B-Q with the locals where we all signed autographs, exchanged stories and drank lots of beer. Did you know Castlemans xxxx beer is called 4 xxxx because they couldn't spell beer?
The next day we took a boat ride to the Barrier Reef, a about an hour straight out to a small island about 100' wide. This is a bird sanctuary with only limited access for people. I was pleased to see my picture in the local newspaper that recapped our game the night before, even if they did spell my name wrong. I did my first snorkeling here. It was interesting to swim with the fish and see giant clams. We made a stop on the way back at Green's Island where we spent a couple of hours exploring this tropical island. Then it was back to the hotel and onto the airplane for a 3 hour flight to Brisbane.
Brisbane
After landing in Brisbane,
we drove about an hour to Surfers Paradise.
I had no idea what to expect but was pleasantly surprised to find we
were staying at the Conrad International Hotel. This was a huge
triangular shaped hotel with 2 stories of casinos, discos and nice
restaurants.
Somehow I knew I was going to have fun.
Surfers Paradise
is much like Honolulu, it is where the Aussies go to bask in the sun at
the beach.
There were many sights to see, and plenty of places to shop. There was
light drizzle and rain most of the 2 days we were there so our games
were canceled.
Our local sponsor invited us to his club one night for a dinner with
his team.
Clubs are private lawn bowling clubs. Magnificently manicured lawns
where older folks dress in total white and roll balls on the grass, we
saw them everywhere we went.
It is always interesting to talk with the locals, of any age.
We spent one afternoon visiting the Carbarundum Wild Life Sanctuary
where we were able to see many local animals and the flora and flana of
the area.
With the arrival of the sun the next day we were off on another plane trip to Sydney.
Sydney
Sydney
is a beautiful city. Similar in size and scale, it reminded me of San
Francisco. It is a town built on the water, with hills and is of about
the same size.
I was impressed with how clean the city was and there were no street
bums or pan handlers anywhere.
Other than that, it was a big city like all the rest.
We checked into our high rise hotel a couple of blocks from the Sydney Opera House and did a little cruising and shopping before our game that night. Our game took us to a small stadium in a residential area about 15 miles out of downtown. Like many baseball teams in Australia, this one was supported by a small casino located next to the field. It was drizzling rain as we started the game and never let up. We played the Auburn Orioles minor league team, 18 to 23 years old mostly. They beat us 6-4 after 5 innings when the rain became to much to play in any longer. Since our team had dwindled to 8 players we had to borrow a catcher from the other team. He was an excellent athlete of about 22, I loaned him one of my jerseys so we had McCroskey pitching and catching battery. He had a good sence of baseball and called a good game both nights we played. The Aussies have a number of great baseball expressions, most of which I can't remember. We were all amused with them. Instead of saying 2 out, they would say "2 missing, or 2 dead and umpires were called "umpies"
The next day we toured parts of the city and had lunch at the Opera House. That night we had another game, we were tied in the 5th before it was called because of the rain again. It was tough pitching there, the umpies weren't used to curve balls and wouldn't call any for strikes. He would, however, call a fast ball at the ankles a strike. I think they still think they are playing cricket.
That night we checked out one of the local discos. Australia is famous for their beautiful women and they were on display that Friday night. All blond, blue eyed and wearing short black tight skirts was the look of the night. This club had 3 floors, 1st floor closed at 12, 2nd floor at 2:00 AM and the upper floor at 4:00 am. We closed them all, went back to pack and were at the airport by 7:00 am ready for our flight to New Zealand.
Aussies
The Aussies are fun
loving people. They like Americans, seemed very Americanized and are a
well developed western industrial country.
There is plenty to see and plenty to do, I hope I can return someday.
There is an international baseball tournament held each year in Alice Springs, perhaps someday we will play there.
G'day Mate!
Last Updated November 29, 1996