Overview
Organised baseball is played in Darwin, Alice Springs and Katherine. Darwin has four clubs; Nightcliff Tigers, Palmerston Reds, Pints and Tracy Village Rebels. The East Darwin Beasts disbanded in 1987 and the South Darwin Rabbitohs disbanded in 2004. In Darwin, baseball is a dry-season sport, played between April and September each year. Baseball in Darwin is controlled by the Darwin Baseball Association.
Alice Springs has six teams; Bulls, Cubs, Demons, Panthers, Redbacks and Venom. In Alice Springs, baseball is a summer sport, usually played between October and March. Baseball in Alice Springs is controlled by the Alice Springs Baseball Association.
The Northern Territory competed in the national Claxton Shield competition between 1981 and 1988. During its 8 year admittance, the Northern Territory won only 1 game, against South Australia, in 1987. Bill Hutcheson, a Catcher, from originally Tennant Creek and later Darwin, was the only player to play in all 8 Claxton Shields. He was also the first Territorian to hit a home run in 1984, against Victoria.
In 1991, the Territory joined the national Australian Provincial Championship (also known as the Commonwealth Cup) competition for regional Australian baseball. Bill Fryar became the first Territorian to hit a home run in 1992, against Queensland. In 1999, the Northern Territory won the Cup for the first time under the leadership of Captain/Coach, Andrew Kendray.
Success for the Northern Territory is difficult as promising juniors are attracted away from the Territory to pursue careers in the southern leagues where their opportunities are greater. Several Territorian home-grown players have gone onto successful baseball careers and these most notably include Max Hardy, Jon Mellor, Lachlan Burrows, Darren Welch, Wilson Lee, Sam Tibbits, Dushan Ruzic and Adrian Burnside. Rarely do these players return to the Northern Territory. This has created a catch 22 situation for Baseball NT whereby it understands that by developing home-grown talent, there is a good possibility these players will be lost to southern leagues, unlikely to return to the Northern Territory. In November 1983 however, five Territory players were selected to play for Australia against the touring Japanese Industrial League champions, Toshiba, and included, Bill Fryar, Laurie Moore, Dwayne McInnes from Darwin; John Baldock from Tennant Creek and Darren Welch from Alice Springs.
Since the late 1990s, the popularity and standard of baseball in the Northern Territory has steadily declined as it struggles to compete against Australian icon sports such as cricket, as well as attract juniors away from the information technology revolution such as computer games and the "hip-hop" culture.
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