More than a decade after the demise of the Australian Baseball League (ABL), a topflight national competition will return — with a financial boost from Major League Baseball.
The new six-team Australian Baseball League will begin play in November, bankrolled by MLB in the US and the Australian Baseball Federation (ABF).
The old ABL folded in 1999 amid mounting debts and was purchased by former Milwaukee Brewers catcher David Nilsson, an Australian.
The competition created in the wake of the ABL, the International Baseball League of Australia, folded in 2002.
The new teams, located in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth and Canberra, will play a likely 40-game schedule.
Ben Foster, a former utility infielder and catcher with the Gold Coast team in the old ABL, is the manager of baseball operations for the new competition.
“There were will be two prime stakeholders, Major League Baseball and the ABF,” Foster said yesterday.
He would not confirm reports that MLB would provide 75 percent of the operating costs of the new league.
The Australian government kick-started funds for the new league with a US$400,000 grant last year.
Foster said all the teams will be essentially owned by the league, with separate operating staff that will report directly to the ABL. The teams, however, will be responsible for acquiring sponsorships and running local promotions.
Peter Wermouth, who has worked for MLB International in new business development, has moved to Australia and will be chief executive officer for the ABL.
Foster said the ABL will run during the major league offseason and probably attract a wide variety of players.
“I guess we’ll be much like other winter leagues, maybe not comparable directly in terms of year one ... maybe a little below,” Foster said. “Overall, we’d be looking at around Double A.”
There are three main minor league levels under the majors — Triple A, Double A and Single A. However, often major league players looking for extra conditioning during the offseason play in the winter leagues, and Foster hopes to see some established stars head to Australia from time to time.
There were eight Australian players on MLB rosters last year. This year, four of 11 Australians in spring training made it to the opening day rosters — right-handed short relievers Grant Balfour of the Tampa Bay Rays and Peter Moylan of the Atlanta Braves, left-handed reliever Brad Thomas of the Detroit Tigers and Ryan Rowland-Smith, a starter for the Seattle Mariners.
Nilsson and Graeme Lloyd remain Australia’s top exports.
Nilsson played for the Brewers from 1992 to 1999 and was an all-star in 1999 before retiring the same year with 105 home runs and a .284 career batting average.
Lloyd, a left-handed reliever, played from 1993 to 2003 with seven major league teams and won two World Series rings with the Yankees. He had a career won-lost record of 30-36, an earned-run average of 4.04 and 304 strikeouts.
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