11 September 2009

Senators get behind "Let's do it Canberra" baseball bid

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Senators Kate Lundy and Gary Humphries have pledged their support for the “Let’s do it Canberra” bid to join the inaugural season of the Australian Baseball League (ABL), beginning November 2010.

As part of the bid, “Let’s do it Canberra” must obtain 5,000, $20 pledges of support from the Canberra community in addition to raising $100,000 per annum in sponsorship over three years.

Senator Lundy said she was delighted to pledge her $20 in support of the “Let’s do it Canberra” bid and urges all Canberrans to do the same.

“This is a fantastic opportunity to see Canberra compete on the national stage,” Senator Lundy said, adding,

“Having Major League Baseball backing will give the league real credibility world-wide and help raise Canberra’s profile on an international level.”

Senator Humphries said that having a team in the ABL would give Canberra the opportunity to see its best local players in action.

“Canberra has produced many elite baseball players and it would be fantastic to see them represent their home town at a national level,” Humphries said.

“I urge all Canberrans to join with Kate and I and get behind the bid; this is a great opportunity for our local community to showcase ourselves on a national stage.”

ACT Baseball President Theo Vassalakis said gaining support from Senators Lundy and Humphries shows the significance of the opportunity that lies on Canberra’s doorstep.

“For Canberra to compete in the Australian Baseball League will be a dream come true for so many of our younger players,” Vassalakis said.

“We should not deny our current juniors and future generations the opportunity to represent their home town at the highest level possible.

“We can’t rely on the baseball community alone, for us to be successful we need the entire community get behind the ‘Let’s do it Canberra’ bid,” Theo concluded.

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Woody Mann-Caruso said :

Give up. You lost three posts ago.

Claiming victory on the internet is just another form of losing. I win.

Nambucco Deliria7:29 pm 13 Sep 09

You hit thye nail on the head there, PB. I said something very impolite about Woody, but they wouldn’t post it for some reason. Seems you’re allowed to slate the British, but the British aren’t allowed to defend themselves.

Special G said :

Baseball is about as interesting as watching paint dry and takes about the same amount of time. No money for you Kate.

It seems almost like American football, where they seem to spend 60% of the game strutting around the field trying to figure out where theyre meant to be, while having brief (5-10 second) running efforts. How can they take such an active sport in other parts of the world and turn it into such a slow moving game, almost as methodical as cricket. For comparison, compare how long the superbowl lasts, to how long an AFL/NRL grand final lasts.

i just want a comma. ‘it canberra’ isn’t a well-formed phrase, so hard ‘to do. how hard is a comma? ya want a whole community to support it (as previously pointed out, have buckleys) and do it with appalling grammar? nice.

Pommy bastard3:51 pm 13 Sep 09

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

Still waiting for you to provide evidence to support your claim that baseball is played more in Australia than the UK, .

In 2003, within Australia there was roughly 57,000 Australians playing baseball in around 5000 teams.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_Australia

Today, there are more than 40 baseball teams and 875 adult players, ranging geographically from Croydon to Liverpool, Southampton to Edinburgh.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baseball_in_the_United_Kingdom#At_present

Pommy bastard3:36 pm 13 Sep 09

I have no problem with anyone pointing out that baseball is played in Britain today, I even went as far as pointing out there is even a British version of it. You really should try to debate what people post, not what the mouse in your pocket tells you they have posted, otherwise you’ll come across as, frankly barking (that’s if people are being polite, otherwise they may call you the “L” word.)

You see, making up things that you think other people believe, make you look a little…how can I put this… less than honest.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

YOU perceive it as an American sport, and seem to think that nobody outside of America would want to support it.

How did I seem to think this? And what are next weeks Ozlotto numbers, if you have your psychic powers switched on.

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

Haven’t they read your bestselling memoirs?

I hope they have, otherwise they wouldn’t be best sellers, would they?

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

Still waiting for you to provide evidence to support your claim that baseball is played more in Australia than the UK, and that the baseball played in the UK by those in the national league is different to that played in the US. I won’t hold my breath.

Now you’ve got me there! I concede defeat on this, as I cannot read the invisible writing, (which I must have posted in my sleep,) claiming this.

Can you point out to us where I did? Or is this just something else which the mouse in your pocket tells you that I believe?

I say old chum, you’ve rather a lot of proof to provide in order to ensure your veracity here, chin chin.

Woody Mann-Caruso2:42 pm 13 Sep 09

What is your problem with someone mentioning that baseball is perceived as an American sport

What’s your problem with someone pointing out that the English invented it and still play it today? Had you scrambling around the internet trying to refute it and all. (By the way, the Wikipedia stuff? Confusing modern British baseball with baseball as its played by most Britons? Fail. But you tried your hardest.)

YOU perceive it as an American sport, and seem to think that nobody outside of America would want to support it. I suppose magic fairies brainwashed the English into liking it, setting up a national league and then playing it internationally. And the Cubans, the Nicaraguans, the Venezuelans, the Mexicans, the Panamanians, the good people of the Dominican Republic, the Colombians, the Puerto Ricans, the Japanese, the South Koreans, the residents of Chinese Taipei, the Dutch, the Czechs, the Spanish, South Africans, the Croats, the Germans, the Chinese and last but not least, the Australians – and that’s just this year’s World Cup.

Haven’t they read your bestselling memoirs? Don’t they know that baseball is an American sport, and couldn’t possibly be supported by anybody outside the USA? Don’t they know that nobody ever develops an interest in new and different sports? How broad-minded of them, how global, how un-British!

Still waiting for you to provide evidence to support your claim that baseball is played more in Australia than the UK, and that the baseball played in the UK by those in the national league is different to that played in the US. I won’t hold my breath.

have they got a steroid sponsor lined up

Sadly, this is very true, at least in the US. Maybe they could set up a league for juicers, sponsored by the big pharma companies.

Baseball is about as interesting as watching paint dry and takes about the same amount of time. No money for you Kate.

Oh I should have asked, have they got a steroid sponsor lined up. I hear that’s an important part of the professional game.

Pommy bastard10:42 am 12 Sep 09

Woody, Woody, Woody, calm down, you’ve upset yourself unduly old bean.. You are the one who introduced all these irrelevancies about the game in Britain, while the rest of us were discussing the game, or lack of, in Canberra. I do not deny the game is played in the UK, nor in Aus, that would be silly.

But not quite as silly as your apparent denial that it is now perceived world wide as an American sport.

What is your problem here woody? Are you a Yank? If so I’m dreadfully sorry for suggesting this may be perceived as an American sport, how could I be so gauche? (oh, hang about, everyone in the world bar you thinks it is, don’t they.)

If it’s my not recognising that the Americans played a part in WWII when discussing baseball in Canberra, then I can se why that would upset you too. (Oh, not I cannot.)

And if you are upset that I have not sent $20 to support this application as the lovely Katy has, my apologies, I’m still skint after chipping in to buy an replica Ashes trophy.

What is your problem with someone mentioning that baseball is perceived as an American sport? It was not said in a derogatory way.

Chin chin, time for a snifter…

Did anyone expect the politicians to oppose something like this? If a professional baseball team needs government handouts to get started then it’s clearly not a viable business and hence a waste of money.

Woody Mann-Caruso9:09 am 12 Sep 09

Oh, there you are.

I see you’ve learned to use Wikipedia. See my post to Thumper. Are you really trying to claim that there isn’t a British national baseball league, and that the game they play isn’t exactly the same as the game played in the US (it sort of has to be, you see, for it to be an MBL franchise), and that they’ve played it exactly the same way as the Yanks for at least 120 years? Because that would make you an idiot or a liar. “Played less than here”? I must have missed the announcement about a forty team MBL franchise being launched here.

Give up. You lost three posts ago.

Woody Mann-Caruso9:03 am 12 Sep 09

What part of ‘four tier national league with over 40 teams’ didn’t you understand? Are you trying to claim that it doesn’t exist? Are the National Youth Baseball Championships being played this weekend in Finsbury a shared hallucination? The AAA BBF National Champs last weekend at Harrogate? THE NBL and Single-A champs the weekend before that at Roundshaw? The London Baseball Tournament the weekend before that? Just because none of you know the first thing about it doesn’t mean it isn’t real.

Pommy bastard8:34 am 12 Sep 09

Oh dear, I seem to have touched a raw nerve here with Woody.

My apologies for daring to suggest that as this was not an Australian sport, in fact one with little local interest in it, it may need sponsorship from those who do not enjoy the sport.

Oh, hang on, it’s not me, it’s the article itself which suggests that those with no interest in the sport dip into their pockets.

And as others, as well as myself, have suggested, it’s not widely played in the UK,(less than here in fact,) group D in the world league as you point out.

Something you may like to consider Woody;

The rules too, are subtly different – a mix of cricket, softball and American baseball.

British Baseball has been a recognised sport since the end of the 19th Century – its stronghold was in port cities like Cardiff, Newport, Glasgow and Liverpool.

British baseball is now only really played in Cardiff, in Newport and in Liverpool – but it has a loyal and vocal support.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/8200569.stm

But you are right, I should be ever so grateful for mteh late entry of the Yanks into WW2, and pay a dollar a day rt support baseball in Australia due to this. (Eh?)

Tootle pip old chin, time for tiffin…

I am a big fan of baseball, my kids both played baseball here in Canberra as a summer sport from the ages of 8, one playing right through to the A grade level.
Although they no longer play the sport, we are still involved in the baseball scene. We have made many great friends ourselves through the game, and know for a fact that the baseball scene here is Canberra is going strong, and that Canberra has produced more major league players per capita than any other Australian state or territory.
This fact has been recognised and we have been given this as a one off opportunity.
Its now or never.
I cant wait for this to happen, to be able to attend major league baseball games at our existing, but improved, baseball park in Narrabundah will just be fantastic, and will add to the diversity of activities available for the families of Canberra in the future, and will give so many young players direct opportunities to pursue their sporting careers.
I have pledged my $20, and so have many others. I would urge any one who loves sport and has an interest in baseball, and who believes that Canberra should make the most of this famtastic opportunity to pledge at http://www.letsdoitCanberra.com.au.

Woody Mann-Caruso10:23 pm 11 Sep 09

Ermmm Woody,if you actually believe that baseball, in its contemporary state, is in any way more of an English than American game, you are sadly deluded.

I’m deluded? It was invented by Englishmen, taken by Englishmen to the colonies, where it was still referred to as ‘English baseball’ in the US and Canada decades later. Baseball ‘in its contemporary state’ has been played at a professional level in the UK since the 19th century. The National Baseball League of Great Britain and Ireland was established in 1890. Great Britain won the first ever baseball World Cup. Today, the British Baseball Federation has over 40 teams in a four tier professional league. Great Britain will play with baseball-mad Japan in Group D of the 2009 IBAF World Cup. So, you invented it, you exported it, and you have played it in exactly the same form as it is played in the US continuously for at least 120 years, nationally and internationally. You teabaggers seem pretty fond of it for a stupid American game nobody cares about.

And your point is rather unrelated to the topic at hand

The topic at hand is – wait for it – BASEBALL. You’re the one who claimed nobody would want to support it here because *gasp* it’s AMERICAN, and we all know everything from AMERICA is rubbish (unless you need somebody to save you from the Germans).

Except you’re wrong on both counts, so you know where you can stick your indignant Hugh Grant ‘erm, is it, that is to say, does it not, old chum’ routine. If it’s good enough for your p.ssant little island of inbred misanthropes to have a national baseball league, why not Australia?

ACT Baseball President Theo Vassalakis said gaining support from Senators Lundy and Humphries shows the significance of the opportunity that lies on Canberra’s doorstep that Senators like self-promotion.

Surely if the brumbies can manage to milk the assembly for $720k, something as (apparently) profitable as baseball should have no worries milking 10% of that from the government. Unless maybe its not such a useful thing for Canberra to have afterall?

I had no idea that there was such a want for a league team in Canberra – all for it if people will actually go. But will people attend? And where are they getting $100k of sponsorship from a year?? Also, where are they going to play?

Aren’t we also bidding for a soccer team at present also? How many different codes of sprt could the ACT actually support?

Woody Mann-Caruso said :

There are few things quite so delicious as finding an opportunity to call out anti-American snobbery from an Englishman ignorant of his own history. From Wikipedia:

blah, blah, blah, the english once played the game.

…and so on, and so forth. Old chum, indeed.

I really don’t get the point of your argument. So the English once played the game were responsible for it’s arrival in the US and then one day decided you know what, Baseball is crap lets concentrate on Criket.

People once thought the Sun rotated around the Earth. Then they learnt better, evolved and ditched that idea. The English once thought slavery was a good idea, then they changed their minds and outlawed it. The Americans as with it appears baseball took longer to come to their senses.

Pommy bastard2:48 pm 11 Sep 09

Ermmm Woody,if you actually believe that baseball, in its contemporary state, is in any way more of an English than American game, you are sadly deluded. And your point is rather unrelated to the topic at hand, is it not? (Sore over the Ashes old chum?)

Out goes AFL, in comes ABL!

Woody Mann-Caruso1:41 pm 11 Sep 09

There are few things quite so delicious as finding an opportunity to call out anti-American snobbery from an Englishman ignorant of his own history. From Wikipedia:

“Evolving from older bat-and-ball games, an early form of baseball was being played in England by the mid-eighteenth century. This game and the related rounders were brought by British and Irish immigrants to North America…rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of each other…The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, by John Newbery. It contains a rhymed description of “base-ball”…English lawyer William Bray recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford, Surrey…This early form of the game was apparently brought to North America by English immigrants…”

…and so on, and so forth. Old chum, indeed.

Nambucco Deliria11:35 am 11 Sep 09

I thinking about starting the French Cricket revolution in Australia. The league will lack credibility if there’s no team from Canberra in it… um… world stage…smell the fear… can I have some money please?

Pommy bastard10:12 am 11 Sep 09

“We can’t rely on the baseball community alone, for us to be successful we need the entire community get behind the ‘Let’s do it Canberra’ bid,” Theo concluded.

So, they need the (financial) support of those with no interest in the sport to succeed? On to a loser there old chum.

It makes you wonder why such an “incredible opportunity to join one of the world’s most prestigious and influential sporting organisations”[sic], requires those with no interest in this American sport to put their hands in their pockets, does it not?

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