The Sydney Blue Sox are a professional baseball team, and one of eight foundation teams in the re-formed

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 ...

(ABL). The team plays their home games at Blacktown International Sportspark (BISP), one of the two venues used for baseball at the

2000 Sydney Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

, when it was known as Blacktown Olympic Park. The Blue Sox hosted the league's

Opening Day Opening Day is the day on which professional baseball leagues begin their regular season. For Major League Baseball (MLB) and most of the American minor leagues, this day typically falls during the first week of April, although in recent years ...

for the inaugural season on 6 November 2010, when they played against the

Canberra Cavalry The Canberra Cavalry (nicknamed Cavs) is a professional baseball team from Canberra, ACT, Australia. Established in 2010, the team is a founding member of the Australian Baseball League (ABL). The Cavs home ground is Narrabundah Ballpark, kno ...

, and won the game 1–0. The Blue Sox are the only team in the Australian Baseball League to implement sabermetrics as a way to run their team with volunteer statistician, Anthony Rescan. Fan response was very positive for the Blue Sox in the lead up to their inaugural season. As the sole team in

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, they attracted interest beyond the Sydney metropolitan region; as far north as

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area in Australia, named after Newcastle ...

, which hosted the former ABL franchise

Hunter Eagles The Hunter Eagles were formed for the ABL 1994-95 season after purchasing the Sydney Wave's licence, who had left the league two seasons earlier. The Eagles played in the ABL until the ABL 1997-98 season, and did not have sufficient funds to ...

throughout the 1990s. Five hundred season tickets were allocated for the 2010–11 season, which sold out two months prior to the season's start; a waiting list for 2011–12 season tickets was soon created. Such was the demand to see professional baseball return to Sydney, several games had sold out well in advance of their scheduled dates, including the season opener.

History

Formation

The creation of the ABL was announced at a press conference on the

Gold Coast Gold Coast may refer to: Places Africa * Gold Coast (region), in West Africa, which was made up of the following colonies, before being established as the independent nation of Ghana: ** Portuguese Gold Coast (Portuguese, 1482–1642) ** Dutch G ...

, at the Palm Meadows Baseball Complex, site of the

Major League Baseball Australia Academy Program The Major League Baseball Australian Academy Program (MLBAAP) is a seven-week professional baseball, baseball development program held on the Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia for prospective Baseball in Australia, Australian baseball baseball pos ...

in July 2009. Though there was speculation at the time that there may be as many as 10 teams in the competition, with teams possibly from

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 ...

and

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

, it wasn't until two months later that the number and location of teams was announced:

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

would have one of five confirmed teams, with

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

eventually being successful in bidding for the sixth team. Names and colour schemes for each of the teams were determined through a competition launched in December 2009 called "Name Your ABL Team". Fans were asked to select from one of four options for the team's name or provide their own alternative. Though the four options provided for the Sydney team were "Sydney Sting", "Sydney Rocks", "Sydney Surf" and "Sydney Bluewave", the name announced in August 2010 was "Sydney Blue Sox", with Sydney's colour being the blue traditionally associated with

sporting teams. The Blue Sox would have

Blacktown Olympic Park Blacktown International Sportspark (BISP) (formally known as Blacktown Olympic Park) is a multi-sports venue located in Rooty Hill, a suburb in Sydney, Australia. The venue includes two cricket grounds, which have also been used for Australian r ...

as their home ground, which had been the

New South Wales Patriots New South Wales Patriots compete in the Claxton Shield baseball championship in Australia. The Patriots were one of the founding teams of the Claxton Shield in 1934 and competed as New South Wales until 1988 when the Claxtion Shield was awarde ...

home in the

Claxton Shield The Claxton Shield was the name of the premier baseball competition in Australia held between state-based teams, as well as the name of the trophy awarded to the champion team. From the summer of 1989–90 until 2001–02, and again since 2010� ...

the previous three seasons. On 19 August 2010, Blue Sox signed

Glenn Williams Glenn David Williams (born 18 July 1977) is a retired third baseman from Australia, who played in the Minnesota Twins organization. He played in Major League Baseball for the Twins during the season. He was a member of the team that won the ...

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

for the 2010–11 season. Williams had last played baseball in Australia with the Patriots in the 2007 Claxton Shield, and played 13 games for the

Minnesota Twins The Minnesota Twins are an American professional baseball team based in Minneapolis. The Twins compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central Division. The team is named after the Twin Cities area w ...

during the 2005 Major League Baseball season, becoming the 17th Australian-born player to reach the Major Leagues. The following month, Eddie Bray was appointed as

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

of the club, having held the same role with the Patriots in the 2010 Claxton Shield.

Inaugural season

Sydney's initial roster included two players—

Chris Oxspring Chris Andrew Oxspring (born 13 May 1977) is a former Australian professional baseball pitcher who played for a number of teams around the world. Career Oxspring joined the Hanshin Tigers in Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) for the 2006 seaso ...

and

Koo Dae-Sung Koo Dae-sung (; born August 2, 1969) is a Korean former professional baseball pitcher. A left-handed pitcher, Koo formerly played for the Hanwha Eagles in the KBO League, as well as the New York Mets of Major League Baseball and the Orix BlueW ...

—and

with Major League experience. With Oxspring also taking on the role of pitching coach, and a number of players with experience from international league's including

Nippon Professional Baseball or NPB is the highest level of baseball in Japan. Locally, it is often called , meaning ''Professional Baseball''. Outside Japan, it is often just referred to as "Japanese baseball". The roots of the league can be traced back to the formation ...

and

Korea Baseball Organization The Korea Baseball Organization (KBO; ko, 한국야구위원회) is the governing body for the professional leagues of baseball in South Korea. The KBO was founded in 1981 and has governed two leagues: the KBO League ( ko, KBO 리그) and KBO ...

, and the late addition to the roster of active Major Leaguers

Trent Oeltjen Trent Carl Wayne Oeltjen (; born 28 February 1983 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Arizona Diamondbacks and the Los Angeles Dodgers. He is 6'1" (185 ...

and Rich Thompson, Sydney had the most experienced roster of any of the teams in the league. The Blue Sox hosted the inaugural game of the league, playing against the

at BOP, which they won 1–0. They would go on to sweep the opening series, the first of three series sweeps they would accomplish through the season, the others two against the

Adelaide Bite The Adelaide Giants are a professional baseball team that plays in the Australian Baseball League. They are one of the six foundation franchises of the league, in its first incarnation from 1989 to 1999. The team adopted the name Bite or Adelaid ...

at home, and the

Perth Heat The Perth Heat is a baseball team in the current Australian Baseball League and a foundation member of the Australian Baseball League. It is now the most successful team in ABL, winning 15 Claxton Shields. Australian Baseball League (1989–19 ...

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

Baseball Park A ballpark, or baseball park, is a type of sports venue where baseball is played. The playing field is divided into the infield, an area whose dimensions are rigidly defined, and the outfield, where dimensions can vary widely from place to pla ...

. Ironically, immediately after sweeping the Heat, Perth swept Sydney at BOP. Sydney clinched first place in the league in their final game, beating the Cavalry at

Narrabundah Ballpark Narrabundah Ballpark (also known as The Fort) is a 2,250 capacity baseball complex in the south-central Canberra suburb of Narrabundah, ACT, Australia. It was redeveloped in 2010 for use by the Canberra Cavalry of the Australian Baseball Lea ...

in Canberra. They led Perth by half a game, with Adelaide a further game back, and the

Melbourne Aces The Melbourne Aces are a professional baseball team in the Australian Baseball League based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Their home field is the Melbourne Ballpark in Altona. History On Friday, 20 August 2010 it was announced that ex ...

six

games behind In most North American sports, the phrase games behind or games back (often abbreviated GB) is a common way to reflect the gap between a leading team and another team in a sports league, conference, or division. Example In the below standings fr ...

the Blue Sox. Finishing first earned Sydney the right to host the major semi-final series, in addition to a second chance if they lost the series, against the second-place Heat. Perth maintained the perfect season record in Sydney, sweeping the series and qualifying directly to the championship series. The Bite, having defeated the Aces in the minor semi-final series faced the Blue Sox in the preliminary final series at BOP. Game one of the series featured Sydney

starting pitcher In baseball (hardball or softball), a starting pitcher or starter is the first pitcher in the game for each team. A pitcher is credited with a game started if they throw the first pitch to the opponent's first batter of a game. Starting pit ...

David Welch, who threw the league's first

no-hitter In baseball, a no-hitter is a game in which a team was not able to record a hit. Major League Baseball (MLB) officially defines a no-hitter as a completed game in which a team that batted in at least nine innings recorded no hits. A pitcher wh ...

. This would be Sydney's only win of the postseason, as Adelaide came back and won the series 2–1. Sydney players took three of the six season awards announced by the league: * Koo Dae-Sung – Reliever of the Year * Trent Schmutter – Rookie of the Year * David Welch – Pitcher of the Year

Season records

Current roster

Notable players

Gavin Fingleson Gavin Fingleson (born 5 August 1976) is a South African born- Australian switch-hitting former professional baseball player. Primarily a second baseman, he has also played designated hitter, third base, shortstop, and first base. Early life Fi ...

, South African-born Australian, Olympic

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 ...

ist baseball player *

Rhys Hoskins Rhys Dean Hoskins ( ; born March 17, 1993), is an American professional baseball first baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies of Major League Baseball (MLB). Hoskins played college baseball for the Sacramento State Hornets. He was drafted by the ...

David Kandilas David Nicholas Kandilas (born 14 September 1990) is a retired Australian professional baseball outfielder who last played for the Mannheim Tornados of the Baseball Bundesliga in 2019. He has played for the Sydney Blue Sox and Canberra Cavalr ...

* Jacob May *

Gift Ngoepe Mpho' Gift Ngoepe (mm-POH, n-GO-pay; born 18 January 1990) is a South African former professional baseball shortstop and second baseman. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Pittsburgh Pirates and Toronto Blue Jays. In 2017, he beca ...

Zach Penprase Zachary William Penprase (born February 16, 1985) is an American-Israeli baseball player who plays shortstop, second base, and left field who is currently a free agent.Brad Thomas *

Manny Ramirez Manuel Arístides Ramírez Onelcida (born May 30, 1972) is a Dominican-American former professional baseball outfielder. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for parts of 19 seasons. He played with the Cleveland Indians, Boston Red Sox, L ...

* Lachlan Wells

References

External links

*
Official Facebook page

Official Youtube channel

Australian Baseball League website

{{Australian Baseball League Australian Baseball League teams Baseball teams in Australia Sports teams in Sydney Baseball teams established in 2009 Baseball in New South Wales 2009 establishments in Australia