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 shares some history of the original league with the Claxton Shield awarded to winners of both competitions, it is considered to be a separate competition.
Because the ABL's season takes place from November to February, the ABL is one of baseball's recognised winter leagues (although it is summer in Australia when the season takes place), where minor-league prospects in North America are often assigned as an English-speaking alternative to the primary Spanish-speaking Latin America-based winter leagues.
Organisation The ABL was originally jointly owned by Major League Baseball (75%) and the Australian Baseball Federation (25%) before the ABF became the sole owners prior to the 2016–17 season. Rather than following more traditional models of the franchises being owned privately by individuals or organisations, the league is the owner of each team. One of the rationales for this structure is to closely manage the financial situation, helping to ensure that all teams are equally viable. It is expected that this arrangement will continue for at least the first five seasons: the period of time covered by the financial commitment made by MLB and the ABF.
As a result of the central ownership of the teams, all players are paid by the league. This is to ensure that no team receives an unfair advantage over any other with regards to financial success. The pay scale has set a number of tiers which group players of similar experience levels, with all players in the same tier receiving the same pay. The ABL has considered the possibility of having one or two marquee players paid above the standard scale, though no final decision has been made with regard to this. One concern about high rates of pay expressed by the ABF was that it was a contributing factor, if not the main factor, in the failure of the previous Australian Baseball League. ABF management has also expressed the concern that if this league were to fail, there may never be another opportunity for professional baseball in Australia.
History
Baseball was brought to Australia by American gold miners and played on the gold fields of Ballarat for fun on their rest days in the 1850s. Cricketers Gaggin & Goldsmith tried to play baseball at Yarra Park, Melbourne in 1867, but Australian rules football fans arriving for the adjacent football disrupted the games. The first series of full competitive games of baseball by Australians were played by members of the Surry Baseball Club on Moore Park and by members of the NSW Cricket Association on the adjacent Sydney Cricket Ground in June/July 1878. In 1881, American residents formed a Union Baseball Club and a year later with Australians, formed a Sydney Baseball Club with U.S. Consul Gilderoy Wells Griffin forming a NSW Baseball Association in 1885. Following the A.G. Spalding tour by the Chicago White Sox and All-America teams in 1888 & 1889, Harry Simpson stayed in Australia, formed baseball clubs in Melbourne, Adelaide, Broken Hill, and eventually Sydney with competition games being played. Simpson also travelled to New Zealand to promote baseball. When he suddenly died in September 1891, after setting up the NSW Baseball League, it was a New Zealander, Tony Chuck, who took his place in Australia.
Original league
The original Australian Baseball League commenced in 1989. At the time, it replaced the Claxton Shield as the top baseball competition in the country, with eight teams from Adelaide, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Over the course of the league's life, teams were also based in Canberra and Newcastle, with the number of teams competing in any one season varying from six to nine. Only four teams contested each of the ten seasons, with the others folding due to financial problems, or due to a lack of a suitable venue for home games.
The financial difficulties were not restricted to the clubs, as the league was forced to close after the summer of 2000. Running at a loss of $2 million a season, the rights to the league were sold to Dave Nilsson—an Australian Major League Baseball player with the Milwaukee Brewers at the time—for a reported A$5 million.
Formation On 1 July 2009, a joint press-conference was held by the ABF, MLB and Australian Federal Government at the Palm Meadows Baseball Complex on the Gold Coast in Queensland, the site of the Major League Baseball Australian Academy Program (MLBAAP). During the conference the intention to resurrect a national baseball league for Australia was announced, with the Government announcing $400,000 towards the new league. Though some sources reported that the new league could be running as early as October 2010, there had been no official timeframe released for the new league to commence.
Initial reports suggested the competition would likely include between eight and ten teams from around Australia. Discussions were held between the ABF and Baseball New Zealand about the possibility of a team based in New Zealand being included in the competition. The offer, however, was declined on the basis that there was not sufficient infrastructure, specifically citing the need for a suitable stadium and a major sponsor for the team. The possibility of a New Zealand team joining the competition at some point in the future had not been ruled out though. Auckland Tuatara joined in 2018.
There were additional concerns about the viability of a team based in South Australia, primarily based on the lack of a suitable stadium with lights to be able to play night games. This, along with playing on baseball-specific grounds — as opposed to playing on temporarily converted rugby league grounds as had been the case in the old ABL — was seen as a necessary requirement to insure the long-term profitability of the competition.
In August 2009, a bid process was launched by the Australian Capital Territory Baseball Association (ACTBA) for a team to be based in Canberra with the name and motto of "Let's Do It Canberra". The bid was not in competition with any other bids, but was required to meet certain minimum standards, such as fan and sponsorship support, to be successful and join the other five teams from Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney that were at the time confirmed. On 18 November 2009, it was announced by the ABF that the Canberra bid was successful, confirming that the inaugural season would include six teams.
In December 2009, a competition was launched for fans to decide the names of the foundation franchises, called "Name Your ABL Team". For each franchise, four team-name options were available to choose from, in addition to being able to enter another name created by the entrant. In August 2010, the names of the teams were announced, along with team logos and colours: Adelaide Bite, Brisbane Bandits, Canberra Cavalry, Melbourne Aces, Perth Heat, and Sydney Blue Sox.
List of champions Season Championship Series Other postseason participants Helms Award Winner(League MVP) Champions Series result Runners-up Series MVP 3rd place 4th place 5th place 2–1 Benjamin Moore(Perth) — James McOwen(Adelaide) 2–1 Virgil Vasquez(Perth) — Tim Kennelly(Perth) 2–0 Aaron Sloan(Canberra) — — Adam Buschini(Canberra) 2–0 Joey Wong(Perth) — — Ryan Casteel(Melbourne) 2–1 Allan de San Miguel(Perth) — — Aaron Miller(Adelaide) 2–0 Donald Lutz(Brisbane) — — Justin Williams(Brisbane) 2–0 Logan Wade(Brisbane) — — Aaron Whitefield(Brisbane) 2–1 Tim Atherton(Brisbane) — Jake Fraley(Perth) 2–0 Tim Atherton(Brisbane) Tim Kennelly(Perth)Markus Solbach(Adelaide) 2–0 Adelaide Giants Shane Robinson(Melbourne) Aaron Whitefield(Adelaide)2020–21Melbourne Aces1–0Perth HeatTyler Beardsley (Melbourne)Canberra CavalryAdelaide GiantsSydney Blue SoxDarryl George(Melbourne)2021–22Season cancelled2022–23Adelaide Giants2–1Perth HeatJordan McArdle (Adelaide) —Alex Hall (Perth)2023–24Adelaide Giants2–1Perth HeatTodd Van Steensel (Adelaide)Brisbane BanditsMelbourne Aces —Lachlan Wells (Adelaide)2024–25Canberra Cavalry2–0Perth HeatColten Davis (Canberra)Sydney Blue SoxAdelaide Giants —Alex Wells (Sydney)2025–26Adelaide Giants2–1Sydney Blue SoxDevin Saltiban (Adelaide) — — —Eric Rataczak (Sydney)2026–27 colspan=4 colspan=3
Career records
+ Batting leaders Stat Player Team Total G Tim Kennelly 453 HR Tim Kennelly 63 RBI Tim Kennelly 254 R Tim Kennelly 331 H Tim Kennelly 509 SB Aaron Whitefield 97
+ Pitching leaders Stat Player Team Total W Daniel Schmidt 40 L Craig Anderson 33 ER Daniel Schmidt 247 K Tim Atherton 478 IP Craig Anderson SV Todd Van Steensel 46
Single-season records
+ Batting leaders Stat Player Team Total AVG Jay Baum .439 HR T.J. Bennett 17 RBI Adam Buschini 50 R Jake Fraley 50 H Brian BurgamyRiley Unroe 67 SB Jake Fraley 39
+ Pitching leaders Stat Player Team Total W Josh Tols 9 L Jong-Mu Park 10 ERA Ryan Searle 0.40 K Chris OxspringMark Hamburger 86 IP Matt Larkins 97 SV Ryan Searle 17
Season structure
Regular season For the inaugural season, the regular season was played from November through to January over ten weeks, similarly to the 2010 season of the Claxton Shield. With the expansion from five to six teams, each team played every week as opposed to the two bye weeks the teams had previously. In addition, rather than a three-game series each week, the series were four games each, resulting in each team playing 40 games over the season. As had been the case in 2010, the majority of games were played on Fridays and Saturdays, though some games were also played on Thursdays and Sundays, depending on the team hosting and whether or not a doubleheader was included in the series.
The 2011–12 season largely followed the same format as the 2010–11 season, with only minor changes. Though the opening game of the season was scheduled again be the only game played that day, the whole series was played over the same weekend along with the first series for each of the other four teams. To allow for the Perth Heat's participation in the Asia Series, each of the teams had a bye weekend during the first half of the season. The season expanded from 40 to 45 games per team; one of the two series played against each opponent expanded from 4 to 5 games.
The 2012–13 season also had minor modifications from the previous season. Each team's bye weekends were in the first three rounds of competition, and each series held during these weekends were only 3 games long, and were billed as "... against their two closest geographical neighbours; building upon both traditional and newly established rivalries." The match-ups for these games echoed the divisions used in the 2008 Claxton Shield, where teams based in Brisbane, Canberra and Sydney were in the Eastern Division, and teams from Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth were in the Southern Division. The remaining 10 weeks were made up of 4-game series, like the 2010–11 season. By the end of the season, each team had played each other team at least eight times, with an additional three against both of their geographic rivals.
All-Star Game In the league's second season, it was announced that an All-Star Game would take place, to be held in Perth on 21 December 2011. Like the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, it would be held midway through the regular season, and would feature the best players in the league. Rather than the teams in the All-Star Game being made up of players from certain teams, the game would be contested by Team Australia and a team of World All-Stars, selected from the import or international players participating in the ABL at the time.