Sydney Blue Sox

Last updated

Sydney Blue Sox
Blue sox.png
Information
Location Blacktown, New South Wales
Ballpark Blacktown International Sportspark
Founded2009
Division championships 2010–11
Colours
    •   Carolina blue
    •   Black
    •   White
Ownership Flag of Australia (converted).svg Darren Macbeth and Robert Hazan [1]
Manager Flag of Australia (converted).svg Tony Harris
Uniforms
Sydney Blue Sox uniform.png BlueSox caps and uni.png

The Sydney Blue Sox are a professional baseball team, and one of eight foundation teams in the re-formed Australian Baseball League (ABL). The team plays their home games at Blacktown International Sportspark (BISP), [2] one of the two venues used for baseball at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, when it was known as Blacktown Olympic Park. The Blue Sox hosted the league's Opening Day for the inaugural season on 6 November 2010, when they played against the Canberra Cavalry, [3] and won the game 1–0. [4] The Blue Sox are the only team in the Australian Baseball League to implement sabermetrics as a way to run their team with volunteer statistician, Anthony Rescan. [5]

Contents

Fan response was very positive for the Blue Sox in the lead up to their inaugural season. As the sole team in New South Wales, they attracted interest beyond the Sydney metropolitan region; as far north as Newcastle, which hosted the former ABL franchise Hunter Eagles throughout the 1990s. Five hundred season tickets were allocated for the 2010–11 season, which sold out two months prior to the season's start; [6] a waiting list for 2011–12 season tickets was soon created. [7] Such was the demand to see professional baseball return to Sydney, several games had sold out well in advance of their scheduled dates, [6] including the season opener. [8]

History

Formation

The creation of the ABL was announced at a press conference on the Gold Coast, at the Palm Meadows Baseball Complex, site of the Major League Baseball Australia Academy Program in July 2009. [9] Though there was speculation at the time that there may be as many as 10 teams in the competition, with teams possibly from New Zealand and Asia, [10] it wasn't until two months later that the number and location of teams was announced: Sydney would have one of five confirmed teams, [11] with Canberra eventually being successful in bidding for the sixth team. [12]

Names and colour schemes for each of the teams were determined through a competition launched in December 2009 called "Name Your ABL Team". Fans were asked to select from one of four options for the team's name or provide their own alternative. Though the four options provided for the Sydney team were "Sydney Sting", "Sydney Rocks", "Sydney Surf" and "Sydney Bluewave", [13] the name announced in August 2010 was "Sydney Blue Sox", with Sydney's colour being the blue traditionally associated with New South Wales sporting teams. The Blue Sox would have Blacktown Olympic Park as their home ground, which had been the New South Wales Patriots home in the Claxton Shield the previous three seasons. [2]

On 19 August 2010, Blue Sox signed Glenn Williams as manager for the 2010–11 season. [14] Williams had last played baseball in Australia with the Patriots in the 2007 Claxton Shield, [15] and played 13 games for the Minnesota Twins during the 2005 Major League Baseball season, [16] becoming the 17th Australian-born player to reach the Major Leagues. [17] The following month, Eddie Bray was appointed as general manager of the club, having held the same role with the Patriots in the 2010 Claxton Shield. [18]

Inaugural season

Sydney's initial roster included two players—Chris Oxspring [19] and Koo Dae-Sung [20] —and manager Glenn Williams [21] with Major League experience. With Oxspring also taking on the role of pitching coach, and a number of players with experience from international league's including Nippon Professional Baseball and Korea Baseball Organization, and the late addition to the roster of active Major Leaguers Trent Oeltjen [22] and Rich Thompson, [23] Sydney had the most experienced roster of any of the teams in the league.

The Blue Sox hosted the inaugural game of the league, playing against the Canberra Cavalry at BOP, which they won 1–0. [24] They would go on to sweep the opening series, the first of three series sweeps they would accomplish through the season, the others two against the Adelaide Bite at home, and the Perth Heat in Perth at Baseball Park. Ironically, immediately after sweeping the Heat, Perth swept Sydney at BOP.

Sydney clinched first place in the league in their final game, beating the Cavalry at Narrabundah Ballpark in Canberra. They led Perth by half a game, with Adelaide a further game back, and the Melbourne Aces six games behind the Blue Sox. Finishing first earned Sydney the right to host the major semi-final series, in addition to a second chance if they lost the series, against the second-place Heat. [25] Perth maintained the perfect season record in Sydney, sweeping the series and qualifying directly to the championship series. [26]

The Bite, having defeated the Aces in the minor semi-final series faced the Blue Sox in the preliminary final series at BOP. Game one of the series featured Sydney starting pitcher David Welch, who threw the league's first no-hitter. [27] This would be Sydney's only win of the postseason, as Adelaide came back and won the series 2–1. [28]

Sydney players took three of the six season awards announced by the league:

Season records

Postseason
PFPreliminary final
MaSFMajor semi-final
MiSFMinor semi-final
Awards
POYPitcher of the Year
RELReliever of the Year
ROYRookie of the Year
GGGolden Glove
Season records
ABL
Season		Team
Season		Regular Season ResultsPostseasonAwards
FinishWonLostPct.GB
2010–11 2010–11 1st2415.615—Lost MaSF series (Perth Heat 2–0)
Lost PF series (Adelaide Bite 2–1)		 Koo Dae-Sung (REL)
Trent Schmutter (ROY)
David Welch (POY)
2011–12 2011–12 4th2025.44414Won MiSF series (Adelaide Bite 3–1)
Lost PF series (Melbourne Aces 3–2)		 Aidan Francis (ROY)
2012–13 2012–13 2nd2619.5780.5Lost PF series (Perth Heat 2–0)
2013–14 2013–14 2nd2323.5009.0Lost PF series (Canberra Cavalry 2–1)
2014–15 2014–15 3rd2224.4789.0Lost PF series (Perth Heat 0–0)
2015–16 2015–16 4th2629.47310.5
2016–17 2016–17 5th1426.35010.5
2017–18 2017–18 5th1327.35010.5
2018–19 2018–192nd2515.625---Lost PF series (Perth Heat 2–1)Gift Ngoepe (GG)

Todd van Steensel (REL)

2019–20 2019–207th13.523.5.4135.0
Overall record
 WonLostPct.
Regular season record169.5182.5.482
Postseason record714.333
All-time record176.5196.5.473

Current roster

Sydney Blue Sox roster - 2023-24 ABL
Active RosterDevelopment and Reserve ListsCoaching staff
Pitchers

Right-handed pitchers

  • 1 Flag of the United States.svg Drew Gillespie
  • 3 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Jayden Bastow
  • 17 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Josh Guyer
  • 20 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Tom Stancic
  • 21 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Dylan Clarke
  • 32 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Todd Grattan
  • 33 Flag of the Republic of China.svg Cheng-Hsuan Lin
  • 35 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Chris Oxspring
  • 37 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Coen Wynne
  • 39 Flag of Japan.svg Ichige Takamune
  • 51 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Liam Doolan

Left-handed pitchers

  • 13 Flag of the Republic of China.svg Yi Kai Wang
  • 18 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Matthew Rae
Catchers
  • 6 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Jake Burns
  • 24 Flag of the United States.svg Dylan Shockley

Infielders

  • -- Flag of Australia (converted).svg Kai McIntosh-Walsh
  • 7 Flag of Venezuela.svg Jesus Castillo
  • 8 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Zac Shepherd
  • 9 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Max Brennen
  • 11 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Trent D'Antonio
  • 23 Flag of the United States.svg Jase Bowen
  • 26 Flag of the United States.svg Ernny Ordonez
  • 29 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Harry Fullerton
  • 34 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Jacob Younis

Outfielders

  • 12 Flag of the United States.svg Sammy Siani
  • 23 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Ben Tsui
  • 25 Flag of Australia (converted).svg David Kandilas
  • 28 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Tyler Spiteri
  • 31Dylan Martin

Pitchers

  • 5 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Kyle Cross
  • 30 Flag of the United States.svg Cameron Taylor
  • 38 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Adam Bates

'Infielders’

  • 15 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Mitchell Austin
  • 60 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Jett Davis

Outfielders

  • 10 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Solomon Maguire
Manager
  • 2 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Tony Harris

Coaches

  • 4 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Scott Tunkin
  • 19 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Mark Shipley
  • 20 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Jason Dormor
  • 22 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Brendan Kingman
  • 36 Flag of Australia (converted).svg Brian Murphy


Injury icon.svg  : 7-day disabled list
* denotes Development List player

19 November 2022

Notable players

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Oxspring</span> Australian baseball player (born 1977)

Chris Andrew Oxspring is an Australian professional baseball pitcher who has played Major League Baseball, Nippon Professional Baseball, KBO League, and currently plays in the Australian Baseball League (ABL) for the Sydney Blue Sox.

The Australian Baseball League (ABL) was a baseball league, established in 1987 and disbanded in 1999.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canberra Cavalry</span> Australian professional baseball team

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">2010–11 Australian Baseball League team rosters</span>

The 2010–11 Australian Baseball League season will be the inaugural season of the re-launched Australian Baseball League, contested between six teams representing the mainland national and state capitals: Adelaide Bite, Brisbane Bandits, Canberra Cavalry, Melbourne Aces, Perth Heat and Sydney Blue Sox. Each of the teams take the place of one of the state teams from the 2010 Claxton Shield, with the exception of Canberra which was introduced as a new team. Clubs form a roster of up to 35; of which 22 will comprise the active roster named for each of the ten rounds of the regular season and each series of the finals for those teams that qualify.

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The 2012–13 Australian Baseball League season was the third Australian Baseball League (ABL) season, and was held from 1 November 2012 to 9 February 2013. The season started with a game between the defending champions Perth Heat and the Adelaide Bite at Norwood Oval in Adelaide.

The 2013–14 Australian Baseball League season was the fourth Australian Baseball League (ABL) season, and was held from 31 October 2013 to 8 February 2014. The season started with a game between the Melbourne Aces and the Canberra Cavalry at Narrabundah Ballpark in Canberra. The Perth Heat won their third title in four seasons defeating defending champions the Canberra Cavalry in the finals.

The 2014–15 Australian Baseball League season was the fifth Australian Baseball League (ABL) season. It was held from 30 October 2014 to 8 February 2015, with the Perth Heat winning their fourth title in five seasons, defeating the Adelaide Bite in the finals to defend their title.

The 2015–16 Australian Baseball League season was the sixth Australian Baseball League (ABL) season, held from 23 October 2015 to 6 February 2016.

The 2016–17 Australian Baseball League season was the seventh Australian Baseball League (ABL) season, and was held from 17 November 2016 to 11 February 2017.

The 2013–14 Sydney Blue Sox season was the team's fourth season. The Blue Sox competed in the Australian Baseball League (ABL) against five other teams, playing its home games at Blacktown International Sportspark Sydney.

The 2014–15 Sydney Blue Sox season was the team's fifth season. The Blue Sox competed in the Australian Baseball League (ABL) against five other teams, playing its home games at Blacktown International Sportspark Sydney.

The 2020–21 Australian Baseball League season was the eleventh year of the Australian Baseball League (ABL) season. The season was held from 17 December 2020 to 7 February 2021. The Melbourne Aces won their second consecutive title by defeating the Perth Heat in a shortened playoff series.

The 2022–23 Australian Baseball League season was the twelfth season of the Australian Baseball League (ABL). After the COVID-19 pandemic cancelled the 2021–22 season and reduced the 2020–21 season to six teams, this season was the first in three years not to feel the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on sports. The regular season began on 10 November 2022 and concluded on 22 January 2023 with the Adelaide Giants winning the Claxton Shield over the Perth Heat.

The 2023–24 Australian Baseball League season is the thirteenth season of the Australian Baseball League (ABL), and began on 17 November 2023. Six teams will compete in the season, down from eight in the previous season, due to Auckland Tuatara being liquidated and Geelong-Korea's exit from the league.

References

  1. ↑ "Baseball Australia Announces New Sydney Blue Sox Ownership Deal". Sydney Blue Sox. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
  2. 1 2 Schueller, Gary (5 August 2010). "Sydney Sporting 'Blue Sox' In New Australian Baseball League" (PDF). Sydney Blue Sox. Australian Baseball League. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  3. ↑ Stockman, Jennifer (26 August 2010). "ABL Release Inaugural Season Schedule". Sydney Blue Sox. Australian Baseball League. Retrieved 7 September 2010.
  4. ↑ "Canberra @ Sydney boxscore". Australian Baseball League. 6 November 2010. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  5. ↑ "Effectively Wild Episode 700: Sabermetrics, Australia-Style".
  6. 1 2 Lewis, Daniel (29 October 2010). "Bases loaded: expats rush back for new league". Sydney Morning Herald . Fairfax Media. Australian Associated Press . Retrieved 3 May 2011.
  7. ↑ "Sydney Blue Sox 'Wait List for 2011' Season Tickets". Sydney Blue Sox website. Sydney Blue Sox. 21 September 2010. Retrieved 30 October 2010.
  8. ↑ "Sydney Blue Sox Tickets Sold Out .... for Season Opener on Sat Nov 6". Sydney Blue Sox. Australian Baseball Federation. 3 November 2010. Retrieved 4 November 2010.
  9. ↑ Meers, Daniel (2 July 2009). "US pitches in and league has lift-off". The Gold Coast Bulletin . News Limited . Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  10. ↑ "NZ offered place in Aussie baseball league". NZCity. 2 July 2009. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  11. ↑ Foster, Ben (25 August 2009). "Australian Baseball League – Player Information and Frequently Asked Questions" (PDF). Australian Baseball League. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  12. ↑ Fitzgerald, Peter (19 November 2009). "Canberra's national-league bid hits home run". The Canberra Times . Fairfax Media . Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  13. ↑ "Name Your Sydney Team". Australian Baseball League. Australian Baseball Federation. Archived from the original on 6 July 2011. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  14. ↑ Australian Associated Press (19 August 2010). "Williams to coach Sydney Blue Sox". ABC Online . Australian Broadcasting Corporation . Retrieved 19 August 2010.
  15. ↑ "New South Wales Roster (2007 Claxton Shield)". 2010 Claxton Shield. Australian Baseball Federation. January 2007. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  16. ↑ "Glenn Williams Statistics and History". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  17. ↑ "Players by Birthplace: Australia". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  18. ↑ "Eddie Bray". Sydney Blue Sox. Australian Baseball League. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  19. ↑ "Chris Oxspring". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
  20. ↑ "Dae-Sung Koo". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
  21. ↑ "Glenn Williams". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
  22. ↑ "Trent Oeltjen". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
  23. ↑ "Rich Thompson". Baseball-Reference.com. Retrieved 30 May 2011.
  24. ↑ Warren, Adrian (6 November 2010). "Sydney kicks-off Baseball League with win". Sydney Morning Herald . Fairfax Media. Australian Associated Press . Retrieved 6 May 2011.
  25. ↑ Australian Associated Press (23 January 2011). "Heat and Blue Sox to renew rivalry". Nine's Wide World of Sport . Ninemsn . Retrieved 3 June 2011.
  26. ↑ Australian Associated Press (29 January 2011). "Perth make ABL championship decider". Nine's Wide World of Sport . Ninemsn . Retrieved 3 June 2011.
  27. ↑ MacSmith, James (4 February 2011). "Sydney trashes Adelaide 8–0". Nine's Wide World of Sports . Ninemsn . Retrieved 3 June 2011.
  28. ↑ Laidlaw, Robert (6 February 2011). "Bite triumph in thriller". The Advertiser . Adelaide: News Limited . Retrieved 3 June 2011.
  29. ↑ Schroder, Mark (10 February 2011). "Sydney's Koo, Canberra's Gregorious Rewarded". Australian Baseball League. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
  30. ↑ Lupica, Christopher (9 February 2011). "Schmutter takes Home ABL Rookie of the Year". Australian Baseball League. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
  31. ↑ "Welch Wins Pitcher of the Year". Australian Baseball League. 11 February 2011. Retrieved 11 February 2011.
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