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 ...

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 s ...

. 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 games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

, 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 games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

, especially in the

private school A private school or independent school is a school not administered or funded by the government, unlike a State school, public school. Private schools are schools that are not dependent upon national or local government to finance their fina ...

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

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball league composed of 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (baseball), National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. MLB i ...

of the ABL when it began play in November 2010. Following the

2015–16 Australian Baseball League season The 2015–16 Australian Baseball League season was the sixth Australian Baseball League (ABL) season, held from 23 October 2015 to 6 February 2016. Teams Regular season Standings Statistical leaders Postseason Bracket Prelim ...

, 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 country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

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, ...

performance at the

2004 Athens Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

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 Aus ...

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 former 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 fr ...

and

Graeme Lloyd Graeme John Lloyd (born 9 April 1967) is an Australian 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 Royals o ...

- 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