First 2 weeks in Perth

Greetings from the Land Down Under. Things have been going well down in Australia, I've been here for two weeks and its already been quite the experience. I have been extremely busy since I've been here, with baseball related activities. I am coaching two teams and playing on another, which I will expand on as I write more. The weather is starting to get hot, and supposedly is consistently around 95-100 in the coming months, the sun feels like it is right on top of you down here, and sunscreen is almost a requirement. The culture here in Perth is very relaxed and seems very pleasant. It is a big city (i think close to 2 million) that is pretty spread out. Unfortunately the house I live in is almost 30 mins away from the actual downtown. The beaches here are very cool, and I have been able to visit them a couple of times. Marshall and I have also found a couple of breweries/pubs that we enjoy, the beer down here in Australia is very good.

As for the baseball........It is very interesting compared to what I'm used to playing back home. Baseball down here is played at a "club" level. With Western Australia having 10 main clubs in the greater Perth Area. Each club has a number of teams from little league all the way up to the "State League" level which is what I'm playing at. Along with the State League level, each club also has 2 or 3 teams that would be the equivalent to adult league teams back in the states. The club is very social, and club members are very proud to be part of their respective club. Baseball is like the 4th or 5th most popular sport down here (maybe lower then that?), but the people who do know about it are absolutely passionate about the game and their respective club. Our club is the South Perth baseball club and our team is called either the Souths or also known as the Cubs. Along with playing on the State League team, I am coaching the U-16 team and the U-18 team. Both teams have some talented players, and I would compare the experience to coaching American Legion teams in the states. So with my coaching duties and playing responsibilities I am at the ballpark every night. The State League teams practice tuesday and thursday and we play Friday and Sunday. While the U-16s practice on Monday/Wednesday and play on Saturdays. That is another wierd thing about the sport down here, you just don't play very many games. Over a 5 month span we only play around 40 games, while the younger teams I'm coaching only will play around 20.
So now I'll talk about the demographic about the state league teams. All the 10 clubs in the league have some very talented players. Each club seems to have at least 3-5 guys who either played professional baseball or are still playing for a professional team. Our club has 1 pitcher who is currently in the A's farm system and another pitcher who was with the Phillies and now just got done playing in Japan. We also have another kid who's 19 who will probably sign with a team this year. The age demographic on our team is anywhere from 17-32! Each club is only allowed 3 import players and only 2 of them can be playing at the same time. Import pitchers (like myself) can not pitch in consecutive games. So each team usually has at least 6-7 good young players, with the rest of the players being comprised of Australian guys who are younger and have decent caliber and elected not to play college ball in the states or older guys (25-32) who came back from playing in the states and still love to play. It seems pretty wierd since most of the guys have full time jobs. I don't know how familiar everybody is with summer collegiate baseball but I would compare the talent level to the old PIL. With some good ex-pros in the league, some really talented players, and also just some good solid players. I hope that painted a decent picture of what the league is like, I'll try and keep explaining it as the season progresses.

As for the actual action. Our team has played 4 games so far and are off to a 1-3 start. We played a doubleheader the first weekend and got swept 9-3 and 1-0 in 10 innings. I didn't pitch in either game as they wanted to give me an extra week to get acclimated. I ended up pitching on Friday night in relief against a team called the Wanneroo Giants. We won 2-0, I pitched the last 4 innings and got the win. Went 4 innings, 6 k's 2 walks and 3 hits. It was just good to get back out on the mound, it had been since last may that I'd pitched in live competition. We played the same team yesterday, and got beat 11-1. But the really story of that game was the brawl that happened in the 2nd inning. First time I'd ever been a part of something like that. One of their imports a huge black guy who is like 32 and played pro ball for like 10 years, ran our pitcher over who was covering home plate on a passed ball and sort of hurt him. The score was 8-0 at the time, and the play was totally uncalled for. So needless to say we started yelling and chirping at the guy and shit hit the fan from there. He went after our SS who ran into the plate and the benches cleared. 4 guys (2 from each team) got tossed, I didn't throw any punches or get hit. I was just trying to pull guys apart and stay out of the huge black guys way. I have more to tell about the league later, you guys will all love the "fields" we play at but I will wait til I have some pictures. G'day Mate.