Covid Complicates Australia Baseball Too
ALSO: CLEVELAND FANS HAVE A RIGHT TO BE MIFFED ABOUT LINDOR DEAL
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know ...
Harbinger of good things to come: Ian Anderson made his debut for the Braves in an inter-league game against the Yankees with six one-hit innings . . .
Topps celebrates its 70th birthday this year with the release of Series 1 on Feb. 1 . . .
Many still-good veteran free agents won’t play this year because so many teams are determined to cut payroll . . .
Biff Pocoroba’s real first name was Biff.
Leading Off
Can Baseball Work Down Under This Season?
By A.J. Mithen
Season 2020/21 of the Australian Baseball League (ABL) was supposed to be the year that put the ABL back on the horizon after a decade of struggling for coverage and resonance in an uncompromising and crowded Australian sports market.
But like most sporting leagues around the globe, the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic is having something to say on how things can work. Opening day, which usually falls in November, was pushed back to December, with teams to play just 24 games as opposed to the 40 games of the previous four seasons.
Taken in the wider baseball landscape, the ABL is primarily a development league for local Australian players, Japanese prospects and Major League prospects who need innings or plate appearances. A lot of overseas talent is also drawn from American Association teams.
After years of administrative and financial issues, the ABL was relaunched in 2010 with the support of Major League Baseball. Since then, 42 players who have spent a summer in Australia have worked their way up to the big leagues and there are more than a few decent names, such as All-Star closer (and proud Aussie) Liam Hendriks, Atlanta Braves sensation Ronald Acuna Jr., Tampa Bay Rays regulars Mike Brosseau, Ji-Man Choi and Kevin Keirmaier, White Sox outfielder Adam Engel, Seattle pitcher Yusei Kikuchi and free-agent shortstop Didi Gregorius, most recently with Philadelphia.
Followers of the ABL are proud to brag they ‘saw them first’ when they were young up-and-comers.
While plenty of people might write off Australian baseball because of its “niche” status, the country has a history in the game all the way back to the 1850s, when American gold prospectors came to Victoria. Over time, 35 Australians have made the big leagues. That’s more than have played in the NBA. Names like Graeme Lloyd, Grant Balfour, Peter Moylan, Hendriks and probably the most recognized of them all, current Australian national team coach and former MLB All-Star David Nilsson.
Aussies are aware of these bigger names, but most have no concept of the game’s deep history in their own backyard.
What followed has been a decade of hard work to rebuild the ABL, re-establish relationships with business and broadcasters, and move away from relying on the MLB’s financial support towards a club ownership model. That was starting to pay off. Club memberships were up and so were crowds, with individual club games attended by more than 4,500 people.
There was even international expansion – season 18/19 saw a team from South Korea base itself in the coastal Victorian city of Geelong, bringing with it a massive number of eyes for games broadcast back home. A New Zealand team, the Auckland Tuatara, was established and were one of the biggest drawing teams towards the end of the 19/20 season. According to figures supplied by the ABL, during the 2019/20 season, 19,853,220 viewers tuned in worldwide to watch at some point across the season.
The league was ripe to bloom.
A new broadcast deal was done with subscription television network Fox Sports and streaming sports service ‘Kayo’, and former big-leaguers came to the ABL, including 2012 ALCS MVP Delmon Young for his third season with the Melbourne Aces. The Sydney Blue Sox made international headlines of their own by signing two-time World Series Champion Manny Ramirez.
Ramirez in particular, even at the age of 48, captivated the Australian sports media for baseball like no other. Everyone was keen to see how he would fare. Sydney looked to be stacked for the season, and had also employed New York Yankees’ minor-league hitting coach Rachel Balkovec. As it turned out, however, Ramirez hasn’t had a single plate appearance.
As positive as it all looked, there were big problems coming for season 20/21. As the pandemic raged across the USA, there were concerns Major League teams wouldn’t send prospects as they usually did, or players would be caught up in quarantine and either not allowed into Australia at all or unable to arrive at a time they’d be able to get decent game time. Eventually, teams like the Phillies, Rays and Blue Jays did send some quality prospects.
Geelong-Korea pulled out of the season, citing understandable logistical problems moving such a big operation between countries. On the eve of the season, the Auckland Tuatara withdrew, leading to a withering response from the ABL and a threat to pull their license, which remains unresolved at this stage. The absence of these teams put a massive hole in the broadcast and opportunities for international sponsorships.
All the while, Australia was dealing with COVID-19 problems of its own, with the biggest issue for sports being the closing of state borders. Even now, as New South Wales has 114 coronavirus cases, border closures and travel quarantine requirements have meant that Sydney could only play one game of its opening series against Melbourne before the visitors had to abandon the series and make a dash to beat the border closure.
A quick note - I know for a lot of readers 114 active COVID-19 cases in one state (and just 299 in the entire country at the time of writing) resulting in hardline border closures and quarantine restrictions is mind-boggling, but Australia has managed to stay on top of the virus by coming down hard when outbreaks occur. So it seems that is the way it shall continue.
Major summer sports in Australia like cricket are able to find a way around restrictions via government exemptions, but smaller competitions like the ABL don’t have the clout or financial impact to receive similar treatment. So smaller satellite hubs are being set up to work around the restrictions.
Scheduling has been a nightmare for the league while border and quarantine issues remain. Right now, the season has had 12 games played in total, with Sydney having played one game, others eight, and others three or four.
Australian Baseball League Chief Executive Cam Vale remains ‘extremely confident’ a full season will happen, saying “The hubs have started and whilst COVID is challenging for us all, we will have a completed season but one that will probably change week by week in who plays whom.”
Vale says hubs allow for a better broadcast product, particularly into the United States. ABL content is being broadcast into baseball’s home through AT&T SportsNet, NBC Regional Sports Networks, ROOT Sports and other providers.
“The key process is a combined effort of the teams and league making decisions based on priority: (1) ensuring teams and athletes aren’t stuck in a location that would require 14 days quarantine on their return home, (2) prioritizing how we can maintain home content for the home team, and (3) communicating as early as possible,” Vale says.
“State and Territory Governments across the country are extremely accommodating, financial support, health support, and basically working with us at all issues on how to best navigate through.”
Asked if the ABL could cut its losses and cancel the season, Vale says that’s not a live option “unless there was a nationwide Covid outbreak at a very significant level.”
So there’s confidence to get the season done, but the ability to do so may be taken out of the ABL’s hands. And with big financial imposts on owners and administrators, what that means for the future of the league is unknown.
Australian sportswriter A.J. Mithen is co-host of A Sporting Discussion podcast and frequent guest on radio ABC Central Victoria and RRR FM. He’ll never rest until Australian baseball gets the coverage he says it deserves. He’s up for a chat on Twitter @AJMithen or @ASD Radio. A.J.’s e.mail address is ajmithen@gmail.com.
Cleaning Up
Cleveland Clobbers Supporters With Weak Return On Lindor Swap
By Dan Schlossberg
First, the name disappears. It was only a matter of time before the team left too.
If I were a fan of the Cleveland Indians, I would sue for non-support.
The team started the off-season by placing closer Brad Hand on waivers because it didn’t want to activate a $10 million club option for 2021. Never mind that the crafty left-hander, a three-time All-Star, led the major leagues with 16 saves during the shortened 60-game season of 2020, when he also posted a 2.05 earned run average.
Even before the name Indians comes off the Progressive Field scoreboard, the identity of the team is gone.
Everyone knew Francisco Lindor was going to be traded because his contract expired after this season. But Carlos Carrasco too?
Logic indicates the club could have received much more had the pair been traded separately. But the nameless Clevelanders decided to become faithless too — at least to their fan base.
Not only did they trade their best hitter and best pitcher in one fell swoop Thursday but were so anxious to unload their contracts that they settled for quantity rather than quality in return.
Cleveland sent the veterans across league lines to one of the few clubs to could afford one — let alone both. The New York Mets, bolstered financially by the ascension of billionaire hedge-fund investor Steve Cohen to majority owner, eagerly gobbled up both without giving up anything of consequence.
All the Mets surrendered was a pair of young shortstops, Amed Rosario and Andres Gimenez, plus a pair of prospects from a farm system that was unproductive anyway.
Pitcher Josh Wolf and outfielder Isaiah Greene will be answers to a future trivia question; neither is projected to make much of an impact in the major leagues, at least not in 2021.
Gimenez, 22, and Rosario, 25, will fight to succeed Lindor, 27, but won’t come close to replacing the switch-hitting All-Star, who hits for both power and average. A .285 lifetime hitter, he’s had as many 38 home runs and 92 RBI in a season. Just three years ago, he led the American League with 129 runs scored.
Carrasco, a 34-year-old right-hander, will be the stud starting pitcher the Mets have been seeking to plug the No. 2 rotation spot that once belonged to Noah Syndergaard. If he avoids the health problems of recent years, he could revert to the form that led to 35 wins over the combined seasons of 2017-18.
With the addition of Carrasco, second-year manager Luis Rojas now boasts a rotation of Jacob deGrom, Marcus Stroman, David Peterson, Carrasco, and Syndergaard — once he returns from Tommy John surgery in midseason. Seth Lugo and Steven Matz are now backups, bullpen hands, or trade bait.
The deal is a steal for the Mets, who are seeking a worst-to-first season, but could backfire if Lindor leaves for free agency when his contract expires this fall or if Carrasco’s uncertain health concerns raise their ugly head.
As for the Clevelanders, they are lucky to be in a division also occupied by the Detroit Tigers and Kansas City Royals. Both those teams, doormats for years, are starting to add veterans to match with emerging prospects and are probably better right now than the once-proud Indians.
Unfortunately for the game, Cleveland is not the only club in tanking mode. The Chicago Cubs, who beat the Indians in the 2016 World Series, are also downsizing at a frenetic pace, with the Cincinnati Reds not far behind. Even the New York Yankees, once the spendthrifts of the universe, are toeing the line in adding top-priced talent.
Lots of teams wanted Lindor, for obvious reasons, and his trade could trigger others involving players with soon-to-expire contracts (see Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story, Kris Bryant, and Javy Baez).
Unless the health crisis ends sooner rather than later, it’s going to be a long season for the have-nots but a good one for the handful who still have money to spend.
Former AP sports editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ has been covering baseball since 1969. The author of 38 books, his byline has appeared in Baseball Digest, The Sporting News, USA TODAY Sports Weekly, and the official All-Star and World Series programs. Dan’s e.mail is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia
Joe McCarthy was the first manager to win pennants in both leagues . . .
Pittsburgh’s 22-0 win over the Chicago Cubs on Sept. 16, 1975, was the most lopsided shutout win since 1900 . . .
After Roy Campanella came up from the Negro Leagues, the Brooklyn Dodgers moved Jackie Robinson from first base to second and Gil Hodges from catcher to first base . . .
Cy Young and Pud Galvin were the only 300-game losers in baseball history.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Brian Harl [bchrom831@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.
Thanks to Brian Harl for his note on Pud Galvin.