Hills Junior Baseball

Club baseball is played within the Hills region in three age-groups:- U/12, U/14 and U/16. The clubs involved are the same ones that run TeeBall, so children can simply move up into a baseball team as they grow, without the hassle of changing clubs or buying new uniforms.

U/12 and U/14 competitions (we call them "conferences") are played to slightly modified rules and on a smaller field, both for protection of young arms and to make the game faster and more enjoyable. By the time the kids reach U/16, they are playing to adult rules and on a full-sized diamond.

The main (summer) Competitions run from early September to March each year, and involve a Playoff series toward the end where the top four teams in each conference battle it out to become the season champions. Games are mainly played on Saturday mornings, except the U/16 teams, who play on Friday nights.

Baseball is also played in winter at Castle Glen, in a limited competition for U/12 and U/14 players. This runs from April to August.

In the 2007-8 season, Hills adopted the national Little League game format. This competition runs midweek from January to March 2008, and is open to all players aged 10-12 as of April 30, 2008.

Trent Oeltjen with a development player

Player aged 10 and above in the club system are identified and are invited to development programmes which run both summer and winter:- generally one night a week and on Sunday mornings.

We also run clinics in the July, October and Christmas school holidays which are open to all players.

Baseball NSW
Junior Reps

A player in the U/12 age group will get his or her first taste of representative play.

Hills is one of nine regional baseball associations in the Sydney basin, and all nine of us play a representative season against each other in all three age-groups.

Hills holds open trials in late July and early August each season, for players who will register at a Hills-affiliated club in the coming summer season. These trials will generally go for three or four weekends, and are both intense and, for some, stressful. However, a selection trial process is the way that athletes are chosen for all forms of high-level sport, and players who want to participate will be exposed to this type of process at some stage. Our selectors do their best to support all players, successful or not, and club coaches and administrators are always there for the children too.

The teams will start training immediately, and the rep season goes from September to February, parallel with club competitions. Training is generally one night a week and Saturday afternoons.

Players who do make these teams generally have a terrific experience, playing their chosen sport with and against their peers in a competitive framework. Of course, there are winners and losers, but both have a wonderful time and often build lifelong friendships.

Hills have been extraordinarily successful in the predecessor competitions:- known as State Cup until last season. In U/12, we have won in 7 times in 16 attempts, just behind Manly on 8 from 16, who are also well known for their young-age development work.

In the U/14 age-group, we are undisputed masters, with 14 wins from 21 attempts, including a string of 9 wins in succession in the late eighties and early nineties.

Baseball NSW

The Australian Baseball Federation runs the National Junior Championships each year, at venues such as Lismore, Perth, Alice Springs, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide. The events cover U/14, U/16 and U/18 age-groups. This is the level to which most junior players aspire.

CHS Baseball

Run under the guidance of Baseball NSW, there is a regional schools-based competition scheduled as a tournament format in autumn each year.

Australian
Schoolboys

The next step up from the NSW Schools programme is selection in the Australian Schoolboys team, which travels overseas each year in September. It is selected after the National Schoolboys Championships, and in 2005 the team played in South Africa. There were four kids from NSW selected in 2005.

NSW Junior Baseball League

International Boys Nankyu Baseball Association

Hills is a proud member of the NSW Junior Baseball League. The NSWJBL administers the Sydney component of an international organisation that promotes tournaments among member countries. In the coming year, tours are planned for Japan, Europe and the USA.

Over the past five years, over a hundred Hills children have toured countries such as Japan, Taiwan, the Phillipines, Singapore, Mexico and the USA, playing in both week-long tournaments and friendlies against local teams. Over 30 Hills children participate each year. The tours are a tremendous cultural experience as well as a chance to play elite baseball at international standard. For many of these children, this is the highest level of competition that they will play in their careers.

We also host teams visiting Sydney in July and August each year.

The teams are selected from triallists who come from all over Sydney, and are usually of a very high standard. Trials are generally run late in the summer season:- around February and March.

NSW Institute of Sport

The NSWIS Baseball Program aims to assist athletes to achieve state and national representation. Each year, several NSWIS athletes also go onto sign professional contracts with US Major League teams and receive college scholarships.

The NSWIS programme culminates, for some, in an invitation to the MLBAAP, which runs each year through July and August. Its primary function is to prepare and then select Australia's AA and AAA teams to participate in World Championship tournaments run by the International Baseball Federation.

Major League Baseball
Australian Academy Program

The seven week MLBAAP player development camp is usually held at the Radisson Resort in Palm Meadows on Queensland's Gold Coast. Over 80 players will be exposed to intensive baseball training 6 days a week under the direction of some of the best coaches Australia has to offer.

Of these 80 players, about 30 are AA candidates, 15 or so mature players, and the balance are candidates in the AAA age-group.

Australian Baseball Federation

The Claxton Shield is the trophy awarded to the state that wins the annual National Senior competition. It is due to be replaced with a new National competition in 2008

An U/23 National tournament has also been recently introduced, specifically for non-professionals and for players who are outside the US college system. This gives elite players, who nevertheless do not choose a career in baseball, to showcase their skills.

Also, the National Women's Baseball Championships are held each year. See the section on Women's Baseball below.

Major League Baseball

Professional baseball, although played in Korea, Taiwan, Japan, Sth America and elsewhere, is really regarded as having its home in the USA. The Major League Baseball organisation is the controlling body.

At the top of the tree, as with many sports, salaries are phenomenal:- up to US$25million per season. Even a very average player would expect to be paid a seven-figure sum each year.

Sydney Metropolitan Baseball League

Pacific Coast

Social baseball in Sydney is played in several different leagues. Most have a geographical focus. The HIlls area is serviced by the Sydney Metropolitan League and the Pacific Coast League.

Games are generally played on Saturday afternoons or Sunday, and are time limited to a couple of hours, unlike the elite form of the game which is played to an innings limit.

Thousands of people, both men and women, choose to spend part of their weekend playing a sport than can be as much fun as you like, as relaxing as you like, or as challenging as you like. All standards are catered for, including rank beginners through to ex-professionals who have retired from elite competition.

Sydney Metro also runs a Masters Weekend in June, and various leagues around the country run invitational and open tournaments throughout the year.

Summer Major Leagues

Sydney Winter
 League

"Grade" baseball is the local elite form of the sport, and is administered by the Major League Committee of Baseball NSW in summer, and by the Sydney Winter Baseball League in winter.

In the summer season, ten clubs compete in four grades:- 1st, 2nd, 3rd and U/18. In addition, there is also a AA competition which runs 1st and 2nd grade competitions among six other AA clubs.

In winter, nine clubs compete in 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade.

Sydney Women's Baseball League

NSW Women's Baseball League

Competitions specifically for women are enjoying solid growth as the sport rapidly becomes more popular. There are now two leagues in Sydney catering only for women, run by Baseball NSW and the Sydney Women's Baseball League. Both NSW and Australian teams are selected and play both in national and international tournaments specifically for women.

This interest is being replicated in the junior ranks, where Baseball NSW has introduced development programmes in winter for both women and girls.

Hang on !
We're getting ahead of ourselves ...

The culmination of the Rep season around Easter each year is the City v Country Shield.

After playing in their home Associations through the summer season, the Minor Premiers in the U/12, U/14 and U/16 age-groups play an invitational tournament in late March.

The Pacific Friendship Junior Baseball Tournament is played in August each year, around the Asia-Pacific Region. In 2007, it was held in Sydney.

The Cal Ripken World Series is a tournament played in Aberdeen [Maryland, USA] among national teams of 11 and 12 year-olds from all over the world.

NSW has provided 18 players out of the 90 who have participated since this event started. Hills have been extraordinarily successful in providing 7 of those 18, which is a testament to the development techniques we use, and the commitment and talent of our players. This was acknowledged most recently when Wayne Finney, a long-time Hills coach, was named in the management staff for Australia's 2005 campaign.

The World Children's Baseball Fair is held every year.

This has been a successful event since 1990. The children attend morning baseball clinics instructed by specially appointed coaches, while each afternoon and evening they partake in cultural and recreational activities to further enhance cultural understanding and appreciation.

It isn't strictly a national team, as only a handful of children are invited from each country, but those who are invited come away with a unique experience.

Flintoff & Dunn
A local website that tracks Australians playing in the US Major Leagues

NSW Country Baseball has run successfully forever, providing promotion of the sport and an excellent administrative framework across regional NSW.

Should you find yourself moving out of the Sydney Metropolitan area, but still wanting to maintain involvement with TeeBall and baseball, CBNSW has you covered.

Volunteers - Lifeblood of baseball

The backbone of any junior sporting organisation is its volunteers, and that is no different in baseball. The sport simply couldn't function without them.

Although most volunteers have children involved, there are a significant number who stay on after their children grow up, pouring thousands of hours into coaching, administration, umpiring, training and development. Hundreds more are ex-players, with or without children, and they contribute hugely to the continuation of baseball as a vibrant sport.

Their experience is beyond value. For the most part they are genuinely keen to pass it on, and like nothing more than to have a parent come up and offer to help out, or learn how to coach or umpire a game.

We urge every single TeeBall parent to consider getting involved as a volunteer. The individual time commitment is minimal if enough people step up to the plate, and the reward from being actively involved when your child takes a great catch, or hits a long ball, or wins a trophy, is huge.

The Australian Olympic squad is arguably the pinnacle of achievement for an amateur player. Or it was, anyway.

However, in July 2005, the IOC downgraded baseball (and softball) for the 2012 London games, and as a result, baseball will no longer be an Olympic sport after 2008. The implications for Australia's elite programmes are unknown at this stage, but it will result in a reduction of funding.

The closest thing to a replacement event seems set to be the World Baseball Classic, a 16-nation tournament held in March 2006 and run jointly by MLB, MLBPA and the IBAF. It will be held biennially.

Blacktown Olympic Park

Blacktown Olympic Park is a sports and leisure venue with plenty on offer!

The world class softball, baseball and athletics facilities were developed as significant playing and training venues for the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and have gone on to host a variety of international, national, state, regional and local events ever since.