Home Away From Home

After an exciting, yet tiring and occasionally frustrating 4 months, baseball season in Australia has come to an end.

There’s nothing quite like summer time and baseball. Friday-Sunday were spent at the Harley Davidson Ballpark, under the ferocious Aussie sun. This is home to Western Australia’s only professional baseball team, the Perth Heat. It’s no wonder how they got their name, with temperatures reaching 108° this season.

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I spent 4 months at this ballpark before the season even started, sitting on a bench studying away while Mitch hit in the cages. Occasionally I’d put my textbooks down and go play some catch, and even smacked a few balls myself. During those months, I was able to watch this stadium get its $6million makeover. What started as a decent baseball park, through the rainy days and into the red-hot weeks, turned into the perfect place for families and neighbors to come spend their weekends. And of course, cheer on an awesome team full of diversity and mad skill.

Although this team is in the Australian Baseball League, young talent from all over the world made the long flight to play some ball with the Aussie boys. Mitch played with guys from the U.S. (San Diego, New York, Pennsylvania, etc.), Mexico, Venezuela, South Africa, and the Dominican Republic. And like me, the manager’s from Oregon! It’s pretty amazing to think of all the different people we get to meet through this shared passion.

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In a cool way, the world came together and played some awesome baseball!
The Heat won 23 games, and tied for second in their division. Although the season ended a few weeks sooner than hoped, having lost in the nail-biting Wild Card Game, it was still a fun season!

Mitch had his debut in Sydney. He played second base for his first game in the ABL, then hopped on the mound after a long 2 years with back to back Tommy Johns. He ended the season with 9.2 innings and 9 strike outs under his belt. Not bad, not bad at all.

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America’s Favorite Past Time — Down Under
I learned a few things while watching another country play the great sport of baseball.
1. People surprisingly aren’t as rowdy here, at least when it comes to baseball.
2. The season is much, much shorter.
3. It isn’t televised or advertised as much as it should be. In fact, it isn’t really televised or advertised at all. That should change.
4. You won’t find hot dogs, pretzels, and peanuts being sold up and down the aisles. Or like the commercial- “Ice Cold Dr. Pepper”. However, you can grab a meat box, sausage rolls, or chips (fries) w/ gravy.

ABL is now checked off.
Onto Team Australia!

Until next time,
Tay

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