The Auckland Tuatara is a professional

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 t ...

team in 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 ...

based in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The most populous urban area in the country and the fifth largest city in Oceania, Auckland has an urban population of about ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

. They are the only team from

to compete in the ABL, and one of two

expansion teams An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

that entered the league in the 2018/19 season.

History

Prior to the team's foundation in 2018,

Baseball New Zealand Baseball New Zealand, formerly known as the New Zealand Baseball Federation, is the governing body of the sport of baseball in New Zealand. Baseball New Zealand is composed of a number of regional associations and local clubs. History Annu ...

, the country's governing body of the sport of

, held talks starting in 2009 regarding the prospects of adding a New Zealand-based team in the

. In November 2017, the league decided to expand to eight teams beginning in the 2018/19 season, and

was officially awarded a spot in the competition. On 26 August 2018, the club's name was announced as the Auckland Tuatara, named after the oldest surviving species endemic to the country. According to one of the team's board members, Brett O'Riley, the

tuatara Tuatara (''Sphenodon punctatus'') are reptiles endemic to New Zealand. Despite their close resemblance to lizards, they are part of a distinct lineage, the order Rhynchocephalia. The name ''tuatara'' is derived from the Māori language and m ...

was chosen as the name in order to celebrate the resilience of the ancient reptiles, and to raise awareness of New Zealand's commitment to species protection. The club's colours, teal and navy blue, are representative of the region's marine heritage. The Tuatara played its home games at McLeod Park in

Te Atatū South Te Atatū South (also written as "Te Atatu South") is a residential suburb in West Auckland, New Zealand. Its location allows the suburb easy access to the city and Henderson town centre. Its elevation allows views back on to the city and Wait� ...

for the 2018/19 season, and moved to an expanded

North Harbour Stadium North Harbour Stadium is a stadium situated in Albany, in North Shore City, New Zealand. It was opened in 1997, after nearly a decade of discussion, planning and construction. Rugby union, association football, rugby league, and baseball are ...

in Albany for the 2019/20 season and beyond. For baseball a section of seating was permanently removed and replaced by an outfield wall which is termed ''The Teal monster'' after the

Green Monster The Green Monster is a popular nickname for the left field wall at Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox of Major League Baseball. The wall is from home plate and is a popular target for right-handed hitters. Overview The wall was part ...

wall in Boston. The club's inaugural manager was announced as former

MLB 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), ...

pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...

Steve Mintz. Three days before the start of the 2019–20 season, Tuatara player

Ryan Costello Ryan Anthony Costello (born September 7, 1976) is an American politician, lobbyist and attorney who served as the U.S. representative for from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was first elected to the U.S. House of Representa ...

was found dead in his sleep by teammates on 18 November 2019. Players wore 'RC' on their game jersey for the season in his memory. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, the team sat out the

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

and

2021–22 Australian Baseball League season The 2021–22 Australian Baseball League season was to be the twelfth season of the Australian Baseball League (ABL). The regular season was to be held from to . For the second consecutive season, the league was to be temporarily reduced to six ...

Records

Single season pitching records

Notable individual records set in one Season, these include all games between 2018-Present

Career pitching records

Notable individual records set in a Career, these include all games between 2018-Present, To qualify players must return for a second Season

Career hitting records

Notable individual records set in a Career, these include all games between 2018-Present, To qualify players must return for a second Season

Single season hitting records

Notable individual records set in one Season, these include all games between 2018-Present

Current roster

References

External links

Australian Baseball League website
{{Sport in Auckland Sport in Auckland Australian Baseball League teams Baseball teams established in 2018 2018 establishments in New Zealand