Baseball New Zealand

Baseball New Zealand, formerly known as the New Zealand Baseball Federation, is the governing body of the sport of baseball in New Zealand.

Baseball New Zealand is run by a board that consists (primarily) of the presidents of the various clubs. Noel Davies was elected president in 2006 for a two year term.

It's members are the local clubs, currently located in Northland, Auckland, Manawatu and Canterbury. National championships at multiple age levels are held in January, with national teams playing in the Oceania/Asia region through the year.

Baseball New Zealand awards one club the right to host the National Club Championships each year.

History

Albert Spalding's team of All-Stars in 1888 is the first known baseball game played in New Zealand. Since that time, various local competitions have existed, but it wasn't until 1989 that the New Zealand Baseball Association was formed, consisting of teams in the Auckland area. It would be 14 more years before baseball would venture out of Auckland with the creation of the Canterbury Baseball Club in 2003. 2006 saw the Northland Baseball Club and the Manawatu Baseball Club form.

Baseball in New Zealand

Annual Events

National Championships

Held in January each year, Baseball New Zealand grants hosting rights to a club, which is then responsible for all organisation and fund-raising of the event. Baseball New Zealand will pay for trophies.

BCO RTC

New Zealand hosted the Baseball Confederation of Oceania (BCO) Regional Training Centre (RTC) in 2006 & 2007. This is a 10 day academy run by the BCO development officer, Ray Brown, and other coaches from overseas catering to 14 to 18 year olds that want to improve their skills.

Organisation

Executive & Board

The executive consists of the President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary. Additionally there are three board members.

The current committee is

President - Noel Davies
Vice President - David Ballinger
Treasurer - Lisa Avery
Secretary - Debbie Campbell
Board Member - John Fellett
Board Member - Vaughn Wyber
Board Member - Melody Callahan

Professional Staff

One full-time, paid development officer is employed to provide long-term direction for the development of baseball. The position is currently held by Greg Wolfe.

Annual General Meeting

Generally held in June, executive and board members are elected for two year terms at the AGM. The AGM is always held in Auckland.

Clubs

There are seven recognized clubs - Howick-Pakuranga, Bayside-Westhaven, Central City, West City, Northland, Canterbury and Manawatu. Cola Yeh runs his own teams outside the purview of the NZBF. The Auckland-based clubs work together under the umbrella of the Auckland Baseball Association.

The clubs run their own competitions with little input from Baseball New Zealand. The New Zealand development officer attends the Auckland Baseball Association meetings and provides additional structure and input.

Howick-Pakuranga

Bayside-Westhaven

Bayside Westhaven has been going for a number of years and fields teams from peewee (T ball) up through to a seniors team.

As well as being part of the Auckland Baseball Association and Baseball New Zealand, Bayside Westhaven is also affiliated with the Little League Organisation World.

The season runs from November through to March with a break over Christmas. Home fields are at Crossfield Reserve, Crossfield Road in Glendowie, Auckland

West City

Canterbury

The Canterbury Baseball Club was founded in 2003 by David Ballinger and is located at Avonhead Park, on the western edge of Christchurch. Members compete from age 5 (T-Ball) up to 50+ (Seniors).

All games are currently intra-club, with representative teams for each age group selected to compete in nationals each December.

Northland

Manawatu

Central City

Competitions

Domestic Competitions

The Auckland Baseball Association runs a junior competition each summer, with under 10, under 13, under 15 and under 19 leagues.

The senior competition is more informal, with two Baseball New Zealand-recognised clubs, Howick-Pakuranga and West City, competing against other teams under the banner of Cola Yeh baseball.

Canterbury runs an internal competition, with under 13, under 15 and senior age levels.

Northland runs an internal competition for under 13s.

The Manawatu club started in March 2007 and has yet to run a competition.

National Championships

The first true national championships occurred in January 2006, when four age levels held competiton: Senior, Under 19, Under 15 & Under 13. Prior years' tournaments were one-off or friendly competitions or only included teams from Auckland. The Howick-Pakuranga club will host the 2008 tournament from 10-12 January 2008.

2007 National Championships

The first baseball tournament held outside of Auckland, the 2007 national championships saw nine teams from four clubs compete in Canterbury.

In the senior level, West City won the title, defeating Canterbury 12-11. Howick-Pakuranga finished 1-1, but failed to reach the finals on IBAF tiebreakers.

At the under 15 level, Howick-Pakuranga claimed the title over Bayside-Westhaven in extra innings, while Canterbury finished third.

At the under 13 level, Bayside-Westhaven swept away Howick-Pakuranga, with Canterbury again finishing third.

Howick-Pakuranga was the only club capable of fielding an under 19 team, so there was no tournament.

2006 National Championships

The first national championship tournament with teams from outside of Auckland saw all four age levels contested by 10 teams from four different clubs.

West City defeated Canterbury 5-4 in 10 innings in the championship game to cap an undefeated tournament. Howick-Pakuranga came in third.

The Howick-Pakuranga under 18s defeated Canterbury two games to one.

The Bayside-Westhaven & Howick-Pakuranga under 15s were awarded a co-championship.

The Bayside-Westhaven under 13s defeated the Canterbury under 13s in the championship game after all three teams finished 1-1.

International Competition

Olympic Qualification

New Zealand was invited to challenge Australia for the right to compete in the 2008 Olympic qualifying tournament, but pulled out three weeks before the tournament.

Australian Provincial Championship

A senior team competes in the Australian Provincial Championships most years. In 2007, New Zealand finished fifth out of seven teams.

Little League World Series

The Bayside-Westhaven club regularly sends a team to compete in the Oceania Little League World Series Qualifying tournament. As the only chartered Little League club in New Zealand, they have automatically qualified in past years. For 2008, they may have to compete against the Northland and Central City clubs for that right.

IBAF Oceania Qualifiers

An Under 15 team competed against Australia and New Caledonia for the right to represent Oceania in the 2007 IBAF ‘AA’ World Championships to be held in Venezuela later in 2007. New Zealand won all of their games against New Caledonia and lost all of their games against Australia.

External Links

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