A baseball journey

As a consolation after my previous post, after the Schoolboys tournament I was selected as part of the Queensland Country team (the Cobras) to participate in the Barrier Reef tournament in Cairns later this year.

Mum and Dad are elated! more money.

Narangba hosted the Queensland Open Schoolboys tournament last weekend.

A great tournament overall even though the Sunshine Coast team finished outside the placings.

Personally, I was disappointed with the management of the Sunshine Coast team. Even though I trialled as a catcher AND pitcher, I was only given the opportunity to throw eight pitches for the entire tournament. I got 2 batters out, but I feel I was not given the opportunity to show selectors at the tournament what I know and many people know I am capable of pitching.

Last weekend I was at the Queensland District Little League Championships, played at the Redlands baseball Complex.

No, I was not playing. I was appointed by the Brisbane North Region as an umpire.

What a great week-end of baseball!. The best 12 year old players in the state resulted in a great weekend of baseball, with a nail-biting finish in the summer regions final. Brisbane Metro edging out Brisbane North by one run to move to the national tournament. The Far North Coast region (of NSW, but playing in Queensland??) won the Queensland Winter region final and will also progress to the Nationals.

Well done to all the players. The future of baseball in Queensland is secure with these players.

This year looks like I will be just as busy with baseball as ever.

I have been invited back to tour with the Australian Expos team to the US in July as well as receiving an invitation to again attend the Baseball Confederation of Oceania (BCO) Academy, also in July. I attended the Academy last year in New Zealand.

After much deliberation, I have decided to attend the BCO Academy and receive valuable coaching from the BCO Development Officer, Ray Brown. After the Regional Youth Championships this year, I want to train more as a pitcher but still catch, as I really enjoy playing that position.

What a tournament! The National Regional Youth Championships were held in Kempsey down in NSW from Jan 9-16. I was invited to play for the Northern Territory and, apart from 3 innings, had 100% participation in all 8 games.

We were undefeated up until the grand final against the Gold Coast. What a game! 13 innings over 3 1/2 hours. Dad was exhausted as he had already umpired an earlier game. I came on to pitch in the 4th innings with Gold Coast leading 4-1. I pitched 7 innings of middle relief and came out of the game with the scores tied at 5-5. It took Gold Coast three more innings to score the winning run, beating us 6-5.

The game stats can be viewed at the ABF website here and my individual stats can be viewed here.

This tournament was probably the best tournament I have played in, i was happy with the way I played throughout the whole tournament. It was a lot of fun to play with the NT team I and would love to get another grand final like this one.

The State training squad is selected from the players at the U16 state titles. It is basically the best players in the state.

I was selected into the training squad, but found out later that I was selcected as a pitcher, not catching, which is my favourite position. I have not pitched seriously since I was in New Zealand at the beginning of the year.

UPDATE: So no surprise that I did not make the final cut. Always next year!

The Queensland U16 State Championships have now finished in Ipswich.

What a change this year. I played for the Brisbane North region instead of Sunshine Coast, where I have previously played.

We came 1st overall with only 1 loss to Brisbane South which didn’t bother us at all. It feels good to finish as winners. The tournament was well played by us all.

15years and under schoolboys was a great tournament played at Narangba Demons home field.

I played for the Sunshine Coast team and did almost all the catching for the team apart from our 6th game against South Coast (that was the only game we lost up until then).

Overall in the tournament we came 3rd and we were happy with that result.

I’m back from the USA, I had a great time in the states, the team stayed over there for 3 weeks, and in those 3 weeks, we played 13 games, and won a majority of them.

I visited some great tourist attractions such as Disneyland, universal studios and 3 Major League baseball stadiums like Petco Park (San Diego padres), Angel Stadium and Dodger Stadium in LA.

You can read about the trip on the Expos web site

We visited and stayed in places like LA, San Diguito, Redlands and San Pedro where we played multiple games each, I had a lot of fun on the expos tour, I would love to do it again sometime, and i would like to thank all of those who helped me get there, so, thank you all.

I got to the airport and I am on my way.

Thanks to all who have supported me and a big thanks to Mum and Dad for their support for my sporting ambitions.

I wrote this somewhere over the Pacific and Dad is putting it up on my blog. Thanks dad.

I will try to send some updates, but if I don’t then I will catch up when I get back on the 7th July.

My thanks this week go the communities of Landsborough and Beerwah for your support.

The support from the Hinterland communities will not be forgotten and I urge everyone to support these local businesses.

I was interviewed by Channel 7 - Sunshine Coast today.

Everyone thought I looked professional (?).

I drew the raffle and all the winners have been informed. Thanks for your support

I am off today to Narangba to trial for the 15 years and under Sunshine Coast Schoolboys team.

The Schoolboys Queensland Championships are held late in July.

If I am selected, it will mean that I will possibly be training for four different teams over the course of the next month or so.

I love it!

UPDATE!: I made the team. Training starts next Tuesday

Since I got the invitation to travel to the USA, I have been hard at work raising extra cash to help Mum and Dad get me there.

I have done the usual lawn mowing and helping sell raffle tickets.

Today, I spent about 4 hours wheelbarrowing cement from a cement truck down a hill to lay concrete. Talk about a great way to build muscles!

I think I prefer to stick to my regular training routine although it was a different way to keep in shape.

I got an email today from Baseball Queensland.

I have been invited to trial for an Under 16 Queensland development team to play a tournament against a NSW development team in July.

22 players from Queensland have been invited and 16 players will be selected for the team.

This is a great honour to be invited and means more baseball for me when I get back from the USA, if I am lucky enough to be selected.

Over the last few weeks, you may have seen Mum in Maleny selling raffle tickets.

I am offering them for sale on-line as the drawing date is getting closer as I have only three weeks before I leave for the USA.

Some of the prizes include: 

Nemo fish (Tina Cooper) - about $400
3D painting (Tiptoe gifts) - about $400
Silver bracelet (Fifth Avenue Jewelery)
The baseball teddy (Danielle Miller)
Trooper Duck (Poinciana Lane)
Tasco binoculars (Gone Bonkers)
Sports bag and water bottle (ANZ Maleny)
2 Quality pens (ANZ Maleny)
selection of Wines (Tanunda Cellars)
Limited edition Photograph of Sonny and Cher 1967 (Collin Beard)
Premium Car Care Pack (Auto Pro)
Montville Gift voucher (The full Monty)
hand made Queen size sheet set (The Village Candle)
Gift voucher (The Village Book Store)

Plus OTHER prizes.

This is a multi-draw raffle, so there will be a lot of prizes for a lot of people. 

If you would like to purchase some raffle tickets (6 for $10), use the Paypal link here:

6 for $10 is better than Mum is selling them for. It’s a great bargain. The total of the prize pool so far is over $1000

Dad saw this on another blog, Geekdad (oh the shame), and thought I might be interested in listening to some of the old radio shows.

The Adventures of Babe Ruth is a radio show from the 1930’s and Archive.org has a collection of this and many other G rated radio shows as downloadable mp3s

Dad said he is going to put them onto a CD so we can listen to them on the way to baseball so he doesn’t have to listen to my music.

I was interviewed for the Range News last week. You can see the story in the paper here.

I have an interview with Sunshine Coast channel 7 just before I leave for the US.

Baseball and TV star. Looks like a career in the movies for me :-) 

Last Sunday, I tried out for the Brisbane North Regional team to play in the state championships that are held in September.

A lot of my team mates from Redcliffe Padres tried out for this team and fortunately enough just about all of my team mates and I made it along with a lot of my former team mates from Pine River Rapids.

The sixteen that made the team, including myself, will be training in the weeks and months to come before September for the tournament and eventually for a spot on the Queensland Rams team.

It is amazing the support I have received from the hinterland community.

My thanks go to Tiptoe Gifts, Montville Woods and The Italian Shop in Montville

Thanks to the Maleny RSL sub-branch and to Tanunda Cellars in Maleny.

A special thank you to Tina Cooper who donated a glass “Nemo” as a raffle prize.