Baseball Australia, formerly the Australian Baseball Federation is the national governing body of

Baseball in Australia In Australia, baseball is a game that is played in all states and territories of the country. History Baseball was believed to have been brought to Australia with American gold miners in the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s, where miners wou ...

and owns the

Australian Baseball League The Australian Baseball League (ABL) is a professional baseball league in Australia. The league is governed by the Australian Baseball Federation (ABF). It uses the same name as a now-defunct competition held during the 1990s, and though it sh ...

. Baseball is played in all the mainland states and territories, but it struggles for popularity due to the popularity of many other sports, including the comparable sport of

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

, in which Australia has always been one of the leading nations. School-aged children are generally guided toward a future in cricket, rather than

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

, especially in the

private school Private or privates may refer to: Music * " In Private", by Dusty Springfield from the 1990 album ''Reputation'' * Private (band), a Denmark-based band * "Private" (Ryōko Hirosue song), from the 1999 album ''Private'', written and also recorde ...

ing system. Baseball Australia were previously 25% stakeholders along with

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

of the ABL when it began play in November 2010. Following the 2015–16 Australian Baseball League season, MLB decided to relinquish its 75% share in the League, with Baseball Australia becoming the sole owner. Since

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

silver medal A silver medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of, or plated with, silver awarded to the second-place finisher, or runner-up, of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc ...

performance at the 2004 Athens Olympics the participation rate in most of the eastern states has remained stable, however, there has been a large increase in the sport's popularity and participation in Western Australia. In 2003, within Australia there was roughly 57,000

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal A ...

s playing baseball in around 5000 teams. The most notable Australian-born baseball players include

Dave Nilsson David Wayne Nilsson (born 14 December 1969) is an Australian retired professional baseball catcher and current manager of the Australia national baseball team and the Brisbane Bandits. He played for Major League Baseball's Milwaukee Brewers ...

and

Graeme Lloyd Graeme John Lloyd (born 9 April 1967) is an Australian-born former professional baseball pitcher, who appeared with the Milwaukee Brewers, New York Yankees, Toronto Blue Jays, Montreal Expos, Florida Marlins, New York Mets, and Kansas City Roy ...

- children were once issued a poster of the two with the slogan ''AUSTRALIAN RULES BASEBALL''.ESPN – Welcome to Australia – MLB
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Awards

Baseball Australia Hall of Fame

See also

References

External links