DIAMOND WARS
Baseball’s threat to softball
Softball and baseball have been reluctant dance partners in New Zealand to date but both sports see a time coming when they would join together at governance level.
Softball has been established in New Zealand for over 80 years and the New Zealand men’s team is ranked No 1 in the world.
Attempts were made to introduce baseball in the 1880s and in the early decades of the 20th century, but the code was not reestablished until 1989.
The two sports have merged at international governance level with the World Baseball Softball Confederation formed in 2013 with the express aim of getting both sports back on the Olympic Games programme.
Many countries – particularly in Europe – have long had combined national baseball and softball governing bodies. But some big international players, including the United States, Canada, Japan and Australia, still operate separately.
Baseball and softball officials say their numbers are growing in New Zealand and there are no immediate plans to federate.
Softball New Zealand (SNZ) chief executive Tony Giles ‘‘definitely’’ doesn’t see baseball as a threat to softball and believes ‘‘both codes can co-exist harmoniously’’.
‘‘There is no mandate for us to merge from the WBSC or under the New Zealand Olympic Committee model . . . however I think, in time, it will be of mutual benefit to have a governance model that has an over-arching responsibility for diamond sports in New Zealand.’’
Giles says that would give the sports more clout in negotiating with local and central government around infrastructure development.
Baseball is, currently, the junior partner in New Zealand in terms of numbers – and funding.
Giles says SNZ has ‘‘just over 30,000’’ registered players and he believes up to 20,000 more play informally at schools and social level.
Softball New Zealand had a near $2 million turnover in the 2018 financial year and has just under 20 active regional affiliates from the Bay of Islands to Southland.
Sport New Zealand gave SNZ $300,000 and High Performance Sport New Zealand contributed $250,000.
Baseball New Zealand’s 2017 income was $678,421 – almost $300,000 more than the previous financial year – and it made a $158,840 net profit.
TAB payouts – from a percentage of betting on Major League Baseball – amounted to $337,099.
Baseball got $15,833 in grants from Sport New Zealand and $22,829 from Major League Baseball.
Ryan Flynn wears two baseball caps – as general manager of the Auckland Tuatara franchise and chief executive of Baseball New Zealand (BNZ).
He says baseball had around 200 active players when he took up his BNZ role eight years ago, but ‘‘we now have about 8000 playing at
club, school and college level in competitions of at least eight to 12 weeks minimum’’.
Baseball has four regional associations with 18 clubs, but Flynn is ‘‘getting inquires all the time from areas wanting to start up teams’’, including Gisborne and Palmerston North.
Flynn says some established softball clubs, including Auckland’s Waitakere Bears and Island Bay in Wellington are now offering baseball as an option.
A former American college baseballer, Flynn agrees with Giles that both codes could benefit from co-operating at governance level.
He would like to one day see ‘‘all baseball clubs in New Zealand offering softball, and all softball clubs offering baseball’’.
There has long been some crossover between the codes.
Former Black Sox players Travis Wilson and Gus Leger played in American baseball’s minor leagues with Wilson narrowly missing a Major League Baseball berth.
Eddie Kohlhase, the first male softballer to win world championship titles as a player and a coach, is now on the Baseball New Zealand board and has a son on a baseball college scholarship in California.
Marty Grant, a multiple world champion softball pitcher, is a Baseball New Zealand field officer in Nelson and his son, Cooper, plays age-group baseball for New Zealand.
Baseball has had a great champion in Sky TV chief executive John Fellett, a former Baseball NZ board member. Some domestic baseball tournaments have been screened on Sky, along with international competitions, such as Little League and the Cal Ripken under-13 tournament in Maryland, as well as Major League Baseball (MLB) action.
Softball still has a higher visibility within New Zealand communities, and Giles believes the Black Sox – winners of seven world men’s titles – are ‘‘a great brand’’.
He says there is a lot to look forward to on the New Zealand softball calendar with the Black Sox hosting the Challenge Cup tournament in Auckland in February ahead of their world title defence in Prague in June.
Giles insists softball is in good heart with a new association emerging in the Bay of Islands and ‘‘considerable growth in female playing numbers’’ in some provinces, notably Southland and Otago.
Softball has a job on its hands to rebuild the women’s game.
The New Zealand White Sox slumped to 13th place at the recent world championship after winning four consecutive medals from 1978 to 1990 with Ed Dolejs as head coach.
Flynn says baseball is ‘‘a huge sport globally’’, but hasn’t had the same ‘‘visibility’’ in New Zealand until now despite some encouraging performances by agegroup teams at international tournaments.
However, he believes that the advent of the Auckland Tuatara in the Australian Baseball League (ABL) is a potential ‘‘gamechanger’’.
Flynn began his baseball pitch in New Zealand by selling the Major League dream, but he now sees the ABL as a more attainable first step.
‘‘People can see that it’s real. Baseball is one of the world’s biggest sports, and we now have a team in a professional league,’’ he says.
‘‘The New York Yankees might look far away, but the Auckland Tuatara doesn’t look that far away, at all.’’
Baseball’s other big selling point is the potential for paid college scholarships in the United States. Men’s softball is not on the college sport rota, but women’s softball is.
Flynn believes both codes should be looking to ‘‘grow diamond sports’’ as ‘‘the number one summer code in New Zealand’’.
‘‘I think opportunities exist to play both [softball and baseball], but at different times of your life.
‘‘I hope we will work together for the good of our kids so they can maximise their potential on either diamond.’’
The New Zealand Diamondblacks are ranked 50th in the world, but Flynn is convinced they could one day become a top-12 nation if they can grow their player base and get kids playing baseballer earlier.
Giles says the two sports can exist, side-by-side. ‘‘I would like to think that young men, in this case, have an opportunity to look at what they want to. If they choose softball, they choose softball. If they choose other sports, that’s their prerogative.
‘‘There are, currently, young softballers who play baseball on Sundays and we’ve got young kids playing four or five different sports.’’
Brett O’riley, the Auckland Tuatara chairman and Baseball New Zealand board member, says an ‘‘umbrella diamond sports framework’’ exists in other countries and could work here.
He says softball is ‘‘a really important part of the community fabric’’ and baseball has that potential.
Just like some boys play rugby and others play rugby league, some boys with diamond sport aptitude would play softball and others baseball.
O’riley, who grew up in the same Hutt Valley suburb as Black Sox coach Mark Sorenson, says softball shouldn’t feel threatened by baseball.
‘‘The sport that should be concerned about our evolution is cricket.’’
O’riley, a former chief executive of ATEED (Auckland’s tourism body), believes diamond sports could have an edge in the future because they ‘‘resonate more’’ with New Zealand’s increasing ‘‘ethnic diversity.
Flynn says New Zealand’s national baseball sides are ‘‘the most culturally diverse in the world baseball by far’’ with all races and socioeconomic backgrounds included.
‘‘The New York Yankees might look far away, but the Auckland Tuatara doesn’t look that far away, at all.’’ Ryan Flynn