The Major League Baseball Australian Academy Program (MLBAAP) is a seven-week

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 ...

development program held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia for prospective

Australian baseball 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 wo ...

players and officials. The Academy began in 2001 with the backing of the

Australian Baseball Federation Baseball Australia, formerly the Australian Baseball Federation is the national governing body of Baseball in Australia and owns the Australian Baseball League. Baseball is played in all the mainland states and territories, but it struggles ...

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), ...

and the

Australian Sports Commission The Australian Sports Commission (ASC) is the Australian Government commission responsible for supporting and investing in sport in Australia. The Commission incorporates the Australian Institute of Sport. From 2018 to 2022, it was known as S ...

, with the aim of improving the quantity and quality of young Australian baseball players. The Academy has included notable MLB coaches such as

Rod Carew Rodney Cline Carew (born October 1, 1945) is a Panamanian former professional baseball player and coach. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a first baseman, second baseman and designated hitter from 1967 to 1985 for the Minnesota Twins ...

, Pat Kelly,

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 ...

David 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 ...

Mark Hutton Mark Steven Hutton (born 6 February 1970) is an Australian former right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball. Hutton made his major league debut as a starting pitcher in 1993 for the New York Yankees, five years after moving to the United ...

and

Luke Prokopec Kenneth Luke Prokopec (born 23 February 1978) is an Australian-born, right-handed pitcher who played in Major League Baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays. While with the Dodgers in 2000 and 2001, the tandem of Prokopec a ...

. MLBAAP has been the catalyst for over 140 professional player signings, boasts 2 Major league players among its alumni ( Rich Thompson and

Brad Harman Bradley Christopher Harman (born 19 November 1985) is an Australian former professional baseball second baseman. He previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies. Professional career Born Bradley Christopher ...

) and has seen many more progress through the ranks of the

Australia national baseball team The Australian national baseball team represents Australia in international baseball tournaments and competitions. It is ranked as the top team in Oceania, and is the Oceanian Champion, having been awarded the title in 2007 when New Zealand wi ...

Structure

The location of the Academy is the

Palm Meadows Palm Meadows International Baseball Facility is an Australian baseball field located on the Gold Coast, Queensland. It is owned by Hungtat Worldwide Pty Ltd (Trading as Palm Meadows Golf course) and is leased through Gold Coast city council. It ...

Radisson Hotel Radisson Hotels is an international hotel chain headquartered in the United States. A division of the Radisson Hotel Group, it operates the brands Radisson Blu, Radisson Red, Radisson RED, Radisson Collection, Country Inn & Suites, and Park In ...

resort, which includes a world-class baseball facility. Players are split into four teams (

Roo Roo is a fictional character created in 1926 by A. A. Milne and first featured in the book ''Winnie-the-Pooh''. He is a young kangaroo (known as a joey) and his mother is Kanga. Like most other Pooh characters, Roo is based on a stuffed toy an ...

Wombat Wombats are short-legged, muscular quadrupedal marsupials that are native to Australia. They are about in length with small, stubby tails and weigh between . All three of the extant species are members of the family Vombatidae. They are ada ...

Koala The koala or, inaccurately, koala bear (''Phascolarctos cinereus''), is an arboreal herbivorous marsupial native to Australia. It is the only extant representative of the family Phascolarctidae and its closest living relatives are the w ...

s and Dingos) and the program is set up very much like professional rookie leagues in North America. Academic staff from several Gold Coast state schools and the Gold Coast Institute of TAFE assist with tutoring and supporting the athletes, to ensure their educational requirements are achieved. Teaching staff are chosen on their experience and empathy regarding the difficult combination of balancing elite sport with academic excellence. Education sessions are conducted Monday to Friday, with an expectation that year 11 and 12 athletes set aside at least 2 hours additional time per Saturday and Sunday for private study. The seven-week program consists of at least one match a day against each other and other touring teams, with a break on Sunday, giving players and officials plenty of match practice. Between 60 and 80 players are given a scholarship from all states and territories of mainland Australia as well as other invitees from countries including

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

, Japan, New Zealand,

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

Northern Mariana Islands The Northern Mariana Islands, officially the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI; ch, Sankattan Siha Na Islas Mariånas; cal, Commonwealth Téél Falúw kka Efáng llól Marianas), is an unincorporated territory and commonw ...

, New Caledonia and

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. The current

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

is national team manager

Jon Deeble Jon Deeble (born 18 May 1962 in Melbourne) is the head coach of the Melbourne Aces of the Australian Baseball League and the former manager of the Australian national baseball team. Career Deeble was a pitcher on the national team he now coaches ...

, who is supported by national team

coaching Coaching is a form of development in which an experienced person, called a ''coach'', supports a learner or client in achieving a specific personal or professional goal by providing training and guidance. The learner is sometimes called a ''coa ...

staff

Phil Dale Phillip Dale (born 8 August 1962 in Melbourne), is an Australian former minor league baseball player and is currently a coach with the Australia national baseball team. Dale has had a long and illustrious baseball career and was the first Aust ...

, Tony Harris, Pat Kelly, Graeme Lloyd and Dave Nilsson. As of , there are 84 Australians playing professionally in North America.Flintoff and Dunn
/ref>

References

External links

MLBAAP
home page {{Baseball in Australia Major League Baseball Sports organizations established in 2001 Baseball in Australia Sport on the Gold Coast, Queensland

Structure

See also

References

External links