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 ...

development program held on the

Gold Coast, Queensland The Gold Coast is a coastal city in the state of Queensland, Australia, approximately south-southeast of the centre of the state capital Brisbane. With a population over 600,000, the Gold Coast is the sixth-largest city in Australia, the ...

, Australia for prospective Australian baseball

players Players may refer to: Art, entertainment, and media * ''Players'' (1979 film), a film starring Ali MacGraw * ''Players'' (2012 film), a Bollywood film * ''Players'' (Dicks novel), a novel by Terrance Dicks, based on the television series ''Doc ...

and officials. The Academy began in 2001 with the backing of the Australian Baseball Federation,

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, 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, Pat Kelly, Graeme Lloyd, David Nilsson, Mark Hutton 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 Proko ...

. 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 Christophe ...

) and has seen many more progress through the ranks of the Australia national baseball team.

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

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 ad ...

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 ...

s and

Dingo The dingo (''Canis familiaris'', ''Canis familiaris dingo'', ''Canis dingo'', or '' Canis lupus dingo'') is an ancient (basal) lineage of dog found in Australia. Its taxonomic classification is debated as indicated by the variety of scient ...

s) 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 Technical and further education or simply TAFE (), is the common name in English-speaking countries in Oceania for vocational education, as a subset of tertiary education. TAFE institutions provide a wide range of predominantly vocational cours ...

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 northe ...

, Japan, New Zealand,

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

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 commonwe ...

, 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. Th ...

. 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 Coach (sport), coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manage ...

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 coac ...

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