| Baseball New Zealand Baseball NZ |
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| Sport | Baseball |
| Area of jurisdiction | Baseball in New Zealand |
| Formation date | 2002 |
| Headquarters | Auckland, NZ |
| President | David Ballinger |
| Chief Exec | Ryan Flynn |
| Official website | |
| baseballnz.org | |
Baseball New Zealand, formerly known as the New Zealand Baseball Federation, is the governing body of the sport of baseball in New Zealand. Baseball New Zealand is composed of a number of local clubs, primarily located in Northland, Auckland, and Canterbury.[1]David Ballinger was elected president in 2008 for a two year term.[2]
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National Club Championships are held annually in the last weekend of February[3].
Highly-talented players may get the opportunity to attend the Major League Baseball Australia Academy Program, held every winter in July and August in Queensland. Past attendees from New Zealand include Scott Campbell, Joshua Batchelor and Daniel Devonshire.
The executive consists of eight (8) directors. The President and Vice President, three (3) elected directors, and the Presidents of Northland, Auckland and Canterbury regional associations.[4]
Executive Officer: Ryan Flynn [5]
Coaches: Aaron Campbell, Matt Mills, Cola Yeh [6]
Baseball NZ must hold an Annual General Meeting of the members once in each calendar year on a date to be fixed by the Board and no later than 15 months after the previous Annual General Meeting.[7]
Scott Campbell, the first New Zealander selected in the Major League Baseball amateur draft, currently plays in the Toronto Blue Jays' organization. He spent 2007 at their High-A club, the Lansing Lugnuts, after spending 2006 with the short-season Auburn Doubledays. In 2008, he's playing for the New Hampshire Fisher Cats in Double-A.
Campbell was named to the 2006 New York Pennsylvania (NYP) League Mid-Season All-Star team. He finished in the top 10 for both batting average and on-base percentage. In 2008, Campbell played in the Futures All-Star game in Yankee Stadium. He went 0-4 as the designated hitter, scoring a run, in the 3-0 victory over the USA team.
Scott Richmond became the first New Zealand citizen to play at the Major League level on 31 July 2008,[8] when he pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays. Born in Canada to a New Zealand father, Richmond started the 2008 season with Campbell at New Hampshire, but was promoted to AAA Syracuse on 28 June and then to the Major League club on 28 July 2008. His call-up cost him the opportunity to play for the Canadian national team in the 2008 Olympics.
Brothers Boss and Moko Moanaroa were signed by the Boston Red Sox in 2008[9] [10]
Beau Te Wera Bishop was signed by the Boston Red Sox in 2011 [11] [12] [13] [14]
Travis Wilson was signed by the Atlanta Braves after being spotted as part of the world champion Black Socks. Wilson spent eight years signed to the club, though never making the Major Leagues and spending most of his time at Triple-A level. He returned to New Zealand to continue his softball career in 2005, and also performs coaching duties for the Black Caps (the New Zealand cricket team).
Gus Leger was signed by the California Angels in 1993 after being spotted as a softball player for New Zealand. Leger spent 2 years playing Rookie Ball in the Arizona League as an outfielder.[15]
Baseball was introduced to the region in 2006
Bayside Westhaven has been going for a number of years and fields teams from peewee (T ball) up through to a seniors team. Home fields are at Crossfield Reserve, Crossfield Road in Glendowie, Auckland
The Central City Baseball Club was formed in 2007 and play out of Fearon Park in Mt Roskill.
The Howick-Pakuranga club is located in Pakuranga adjacent to the rugby club at Lloyd Elsmore Park.
Established in 2010
West City Baseball Club plays its home games at McLeod Park in Te Atatu South and is part of the Auckland Baseball Association.
In December 2008, West City hosted Masashiro Tanaka, star Olympian Japanese Baseball player from the Rakuten Eagles of Japan.
The Canterbury Baseball Club was founded in 2003 and is located at Avonhead Park, on the western edge of Christchurch.
The Auckland Baseball Association runs a junior competition each summer, with 12U, Little League, 14U, 16U, and 18U leagues.
The senior competition is dominated by Howick-Pakuranga and West City.
Canterbury runs an internal competition, while Northland runs an internal competition for the 14U age group.
The first true National Club Championships occurred in January 2006, when four age levels held competition: Senior, Under 19, Under 15 & Under 13. Prior years' tournaments were one-off or friendly competitions or only included teams from Auckland.
West City won their third national title in four years as they downed Howick-Pakuranga 7-2 in the senior final.
Central City won the Under 12s, defeating Howick-Pakuranga 3-0.
The tournament witnessed the longest game in Nationals history - Canterbury defeated HP 6-4 in 16 innings. It was small solace for Canterbury, who were eliminated on tiebreakers as all three senior teams finished 1-1.
The tournament was marred with poor weather, as an entire day's schedule was wiped out by rain, resulting in an abbreviated schedule.
The Howick-Pakuranga seniors defeated West City 4-3 in the final.[16] Both teams finished 3-2, while Canterbury finished 1-3.
Bayside-Westhaven Under 16s defeated Howick-Pakuranga 6-5 in their final. The Bayside-Westhaven Under 13s defeated Central City 3-1 in their final.
The first baseball tournament held outside of Auckland, the 2007 national championships saw nine teams from four clubs compete in Canterbury. In the senior level, West City won the title, defeating Canterbury 12-11.[17] Howick-Pakuranga finished 1-1, but failed to reach the finals on IBAF tiebreakers.
At the under 15 level, Howick-Pakuranga claimed the title over Bayside-Westhaven in extra innings, while Canterbury finished third. At the under 13 level, Bayside-Westhaven swept away Howick-Pakuranga, with Canterbury again finishing third.
The first national championship tournament with teams from outside of Auckland saw all four age levels contested by 10 teams from four different clubs. West City defeated Canterbury 5-4 in 10 innings in the championship game to cap an undefeated tournament.[18] Howick-Pakuranga came in third.
The Howick-Pakuranga under 18s defeated Canterbury two games to one. The Bayside-Westhaven & Howick-Pakuranga under 15s were awarded a co-championship. The Bayside-Westhaven under 13s defeated the Canterbury under 13s in the championship game after all three teams finished 1-1.
New Zealand sent a squad to Australia for the Olympic Qualifying Tournament for the 1996 Olympics, but were beaten by Australia. New Zealand was invited to challenge Australia for the right to compete in the 2008 Olympic qualifying tournament, but pulled out three weeks before the tournament.
A senior team competes in the Australian Provincial Championships most years.
An Under 15 team competed against Australia and New Caledonia for the right to represent Oceania in the 2007 IBAF ‘AA’ World Championships to be held in Venezuela later in 2007. New Zealand won all of their games against New Caledonia and lost all of their games against Australia.
In 2011 New Zealand will be hosting the IBAF Oceania Qualifiers, in which Australia and Guam will compete against New Zealand for the right to participate in the 2011 IBAF AA World Cup in Mexico later on in the year. Another addition to the tournament is Curtis Granderson, centre-fielder to the New York Yankees, who will make an appearance to promote Baseball around the minor-code nation.
In 2011, Major League Baseball announced that New Zealand would be among the nations invited to a new qualification round to be held in 2012 for the 2013 World Baseball Classic.[19] Ryan Flynn, Chief Executive of Baseball New Zealand, called the development "the best thing to happen in the history of diamond sports in New Zealand."[20]
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