Ballarat in summer?

[wako]

Playing in Ballarat yesterday, looking at the work being done for the new field, with games being played on 3 others at the same time, I got to thinking: has Ballarat ever had a club in state league? There are 7 senior teams across 3 clubs playing this season, there are already some Ballarat-based state league players, it's only a little further drive from Melbourne than Geelong is (and you can (legally) do 110 on most of the Western Freeway), and it's supposed to be a state league anyway

[Chilli Wil]

I remember playing against a junior side from Ballarat about 10 years ago now, maybe they had a senior side to go with them I don't know.

[Deleted]

Ah, that’s a very good call wako.

We don’t have too many Ballarat baseball people on the Forum, so I’ll presume to offer a few insights. Someone will correct me if I’m wrong.

Ballarat had a strong summer baseball presence in the late sixties and early seventies – initially through Ballarat players being involved in the “Super Six” competition as individuals and then in experimental VBA summer leagues playing under the Ballarat banner. Those teams enjoyed great success in another baseball lifetime.

In 2000/2001 there was a serious push in Ballarat to initially enter two or three senior sides in then VBA competition. That was at a time when there were strong Under 14 and Under 16 Ballarat teams playing in the GBA winter competition. A quite large group of young players (aged 14 to 18 or so) was travelling to Melbourne to play summer ball. Many of them chose Essendon because of family links and because it was relatively close. Seniors were playing at Sunshine and Newport among other clubs.

It made sense to some people, at the time, that Ballarat should have teams in summer league, starting with seniors but then to involve juniors as well.

A committee had been formed to look at the logistics of the senior team entries – player numbers, uniforms, costs and the like. Six people were on the committee. When it came to crunch time (sometime around July 2001), three voted for the proposal, three voted against. The Chairperson of the group used a casting vote to sink the proposal, citing reasonable lack of certainty in player numbers that would be available.

The rest, as they say, is history. With no local summer club, senior players committed or recommitted to Melbourne clubs and junior players either went to existing VBA clubs or more often than not just didn’t play summer baseball at all.

It’s from about that point (coincidentally or otherwise) that Ballarat junior baseball started to wither and die. It’s only over the past twelve or eighteen months that serious work has been done to try to breathe new life into Ballarat baseball.

At an eventual cost of close to a million dollars, the new ground will have a fully synthetic infield and will be lit to AAA level, making it one of only four grounds in the state able to host night baseball. Two other fully-enclosed, existing, purpose-built grounds will complement the baseball facilities, while the Prince of Wales development will include upgrades to parking, roads, pathways, clubroom facilities, passive recreation areas and enhancement to several other sports.

With an anticipated influx of up to 20,000 residents camping to the west of the city over the next several years, there will be increasingly greater demand for recreational facilities and sporting opportunities. Baseball has been treated pretty well in the planning process and has no excuse to not seek to get better.

Like the City of Greater Geelong, local council will expect that the baseball facilities are used, twelve months of the year. Council may require that the facilities are used twelve months of the year. As the facilities should be.

It seems to me that the time is opportune to revisit the concept of entering summer teams, from as early as next season. Whether they play under the banner of an existing club – such as Ballarat Brewers – or whether a new entity is formed is immaterial for now. The Geelong Baycats have been able to bring together players and administrators from various winter clubs. There is surely no reason why a Ballarat summer club could not follow that model, albeit starting out at a far more modest level.

[johne]

I thought the question would be "Is there a summer in Ballarat?"

[Deleted]

I think we know the answer to that question, johne.......

[wako]

Of course there is johne, that's when you only wear 3 layers to play

Thanks for the very informative post kc.

[oldracer]

KC you sure you didn't put Wako up to this??? we actually travellled to Ballarat for a junior summer league fixture back in 2000/01 and I think then it was probably the way to go, build the junior ranks and then the rest..
Having said that the hardest aspect of building a club is having something to aspire to for the juniors so from that point it would be important for the "Rat" to have one senior component to their entry to "Summer" ball.
I think the commitment that the existing Ballarat players have to their summer clubs would make it very difficult to have a competitive side on the park should they stay at their clubs, if that were not the case then the Ballarat side does have a great deal of talent to put on the park.

[wako]

Haha racer this one's actually been rolling around in my head a while, I spoke to JC about it around the end of summer in a moment of idle conversation.

Obviously current summer league players will have some degree of loyalty to their current clubs. On the other hand, it shouldn't be too hard to sell the idea: chance to create history as the first Ballarat senior side to take the field, later, first premiership side, first D1 side, represent your hometown, only travel midweek or every other week, etc. - much like Geelong, really. As with Geelong, I think a new entity is probably the best idea if you want players from the other clubs to commit - in fact, it might even be a great opportunity to bring back the Golddiggers name and uniforms.

[Deleted]

You want this uniform back, wako?

Hmmm.

What an athlete...

[wako]

Haha I must've suppressed that memory from my early teens. I guess you could modernise it

[h]

I personally like the idea of Ballarat Baseball in summer.

and

The Geelong model would appear to be the most obvious but I doubt it could work in Ballarat. There isn't the established competition that existed in Geelong prior to their inclusions into summer.

For Ballarat to make a move into summer it would be by leaving behind winter baseball or having only one or two sides remain in winter baseball at a very sociable level. The quantity of players exists but the travel would be the big killer. Baseball in Ballarat already has reduced numbers due to the travel factor of playing in Geelong - by going to Melbourne and beyond it may become to much. I would be very interested in the opinion of more Ballarat players.

As a side consideration this move would be pretty bad for the GBA as Ballarat already supplies 7 sides which is around 18.5% of the total sides playing in the GBA.

[Deleted]

In the end, h, it would have to come down to what the players and support staff wanted. Like you, I would be interested to know their response.

Going on the Geelong scenario, it seems feasible that Ballarat could make a summer commitment while still entering sides in GBA winter. I'm guessing that at least 90% of Baycats seniors also play winter. MWBL and Dandenong clubs would be at least comparable for people making baseball a 12 months of the year activity (although that might now be changing with the expanded BV season).

Despite the travelling, summer baseball is an attractive proposition for many people - including juniors and cricketers who might be looking for a game on a Sunday.

I'd personally like to see Ballarat entering two senior teams from as early as next season. They'd be drawn in Division Three or Four. Eighteen-game season, with nine games in Ballarat, even though many of the away games would probably be far, far away to the likes of Cheltenham or Blackburn. But not necessarily, depending on team entries.

Depending on the interest of the three winter clubs, the new entity might play under a "Ballarat" or "Golddiggers" banner (or something else).

With junior players starting to emerge and with the likelihood of a summer junior competition, starting up a new team - on a new ground - could be pretty exciting.

[wako]

May 16, 2011 19:31:18 GMT 10 kc said:

Going on the Geelong scenario, it seems feasible that Ballarat could make a summer commitment while still entering sides in GBA winter. I'm guessing that at least 90% of Baycats seniors also play winter.

Off the top of my head, I counted 5 summer-only players in the 4 senior men's sides, including Knuth, not including a couple of guys resting and returning in a month or so.

[frita]

I think this is a good idea and should be considered and for what it's worth, just 1 team that all "Ballaratians" will strive to play in. Next step the ABL/pro ball?
Wouldn't some current players want to play for their hometown?
And while were doing BV's job for them lets get rid of some of the unfinancial crappy clubs in the city that are not even "treading water"!!

[Ace]

Would/should this reopen the idea of East/West conferencing?

E.G.

Two conferences each of 6 teams, geographically split.

Play each in your conference 4 times. The other conference twice.
32 game season - obviously works better for Div 1/2

Not saying it's perfect - could also work for all divisions. Perhaps with 3 conferences. N/W, Central/East, S/E. Get teams in Pakenham, Frankston and Cranbourne.

[ashy34]

Personally I would love to play summer baseball in Ballarat it's more appealing because the travel is basically cut in half you get to play home games and no travel for training. I was involved as a junior around 10 years ago when Ballarat did enter two junior sides into the VBA U/14's and U/16's under the Ballarat Diggers name. Both teams did very well that year with our U/16's finishing runner up, but unfortunately it was only a one year experiment from memory we all then went back to our original summer clubs. But playing games in Ballarat made it much easier for local players wanting to play summer ball. I do also agree with h the travel does tend to hurt us over the winter and it would more than likely do so over the summer with the travel being further, but it would be great if it was looked at again as KC said it would be very exciting with our new ground to be completed soon.

[perfeckt]

AFL and other sporting codes trying to expand often bend or indeed change rules to accommodate fledgling teams that have a potential for growth. I could see great benefits to both the Victorian Summer League and the Ballarat League to work out a 2,5 even10 year plan that would exempt Ballarat from complying with some of the required criteria to be allowed to field a (singular maybe) senior team in this states premier amateur club competition or at least modify conditions specific to that team. A Ballarat home game advantage for one or two teams would certainly make a "goal" seem more attainable for kids who want to aim for improvement (and the parents who must taxi them) by pitting their skills against the best that the state has to offer and to see the homegrown players who are at that level play because their time isn't chewed up by the tyranny of distance (not to mention an alltgether understandable marital tyranny)!
Of course that would mean the city/metropolitan leagues would have extra travel but still less than a club as strong and as progressive as e.g. Geelong who are obviously outside the Melbourne region and look at what they have become.
In anything you need rules but that doesn't mean that they are iron clad.

[perfeckt]

Besides....Ballarat is a tropical paradise!...........isn't it?

[Deleted]

I like your thinking, perfeckt.

While any entity such as Ballarat should/would not expect to gain any advantage over Melbourne clubs, some concessions may be appropriate to help expand the sport into regional centres.

It turns out that the progressive BBA Board is onto this matter.

Under a fortnight ago, there was a meeting between representatives of local clubs inviting input for the purpose of developing a vision for the future of Ballarat baseball. It seems that summer baseball was high on the discussion agenda and is likely to be revisited very shortly as a matter of urgency.

I don't know that the discussion lends anything to the conferencing debate, Ace. Not yet, anyhow, because any Ballarat summer teams would play at a lower level in the early days and would not initially have the necessary junior component.

An ABL involvement? Big call, frita. Although the second Victorian franchise (if and when it happens in a couple of years) may well be based outside Melbourne metro, it would require a ground with a lock-down capacity and with comprehensive facilities for players and spectators available.

Geelong is far and away the front runner, unless some filthy-rich philanthropist (like Jake or Gladdy or me ;D) wants to tip money into the Ballarat facility.

[wako]

Any news on this, with 2011/12 season approaching?

[Deleted]

Yes, and it's pretty disappointing.

Ballarat has opted to NOT enter teams in BV this summer, but has flagged its likely intention to do so in 2012/13.

While I wish them well in that regard, it seems to be an opportunity again passed up. Shades of what happened with a similar opportunity a decade ago, I'm sorry to say.

[wako]

Indeed - best of luck to Ballarat for 2012/13.