Australia

Is there professional baseball in Australia? We went "down under" last Christmas, and while we did play against some players who were minor league pro players up here, I didn't hear anything about professional leagues down there. I could certainly be wrong, but I think they only have amateur baseball in Australia.
Bob Williams of the Goodwill Series would be able to answer definitively, but he's in Perth right now with a couple of teams, playing against the Western Australian teams. From what I hear, the Aussies are giving our boys quite a run for their money.

Check it out at http://www.goodwillseries.org

rt, have a very good friend who's son played there last year, October to March of 2005. Graduated from St Mary's College in CA and then played in Australia. Had a great time is what I was told. While I know there is a fair amount of MLB scouting in Australia, not sure it covers these teams. Will see if I can find out more about the specifics of Jeff's experience and will post further.

Thanks for the replies. Someone said the "state" leagues were the best? I did a google on aussie bb but its difficult to follow.

Dear RT
My son is in Australia with Bob Williams playing baseball with the 16YO team.He says the competition is very good because they are state teams(all stars for each state) He says the Perth Team has several signed MLB players on the 18YO team.Australian players can be signed at 16YO.My son is being coached by area scouts from MLB and they are checking out the talent from all the teams. I am not sure he is coming back because he loves Australia.I know Australia is tough on immigration especially if employment is required.I would contact Bob Wiliiams because he has been going to the Down Under for over 10 Years.His email is on the www. goodwillseries.org web site

My son's over in Australia also, and there having a great time.
He's on the 18u team, and they beat a very good Claxton Shield team.
The Claxton Shield baseball series is like the Stanley cup for Australian Baseball. All the State Teams get together in January for a week long tournament.
From what i've read they have been playing baseball for along time Down Under, with a long history.
they play alot of International tournaments ( Japan, China, Korea,ect.).
If I was a Major Leaguer, I wouldn't hesitate to play winter ball down under( its Summer time There).

EH;
we have now returned from Australia with our
[2] '18 and under' teams and one '16 and under' team. Each team played 12-15 games against the best players in each State.

Currently the Western Australia State Team is winning all their games in the 'under 18' National Tournament in Geelong. There are over 30 pro scouts viewing this tournament.

The WA team is coached by Greg Jelks, former ML player and residence of Australia for 16 years.

Last year Thomari our 24 year old coach remain in Australia for the months of January, February and March as a coach/player for a Club in Adelaide. The visa maybe a problem as "work permits" are not easy to obtain.

Next year, December 15 -31, we will send four teams to Australia. A new team of players [JC, NAIA and pro players] will travel as a 'under 23' team to Perth {Indian Ocean} and to Adelaide, South Australia. They will play the professional players on the Claxton Shield teams.

Mickey White, former Scouting Director coach our '18 and under' against the Claxton Shield
teams and we won one game and lost the game in Perth under the lights 8-7 in the final inning.

This game attracted over 1,000 people and Goodwill Series Inc. filmed this game.

Bob Williams

A lot of the Aussi ball players I knew came from their national team. Some had some pretty decent signing bounuses.

Bubblehead;
we have now received the video from Perth, Australia of the game our American Teams played against the Perth Heat. We will play a segment on our web site <www.goodwillseries.org>

This was the highlight of our trip and our American players played with great courage.

Now to Japan June 7.

Bob Williams