Australian Baseball League
Something kind of new.
As an American, I will admit, that the first time I heard about baseball in Australia, my imagination conjured up something like this:
However, over the past few decades, baseball in Australia has grown impressively, and their professional league has just launched a free streaming service that I have already signed up for. It will show the ABL games, and Australian national team games.
https://ondemand.baseball.com.au/en-au/page/home
Free is a really good price, and the league seems pretty interesting, too.
The first broadcast will be tonight when team Australia takes on team Japan. Japan is the top-rated team in the world, and Australia is ranked 10th.
The professional season starts later this week. Australian baseball is a 40-game season and it seems like it is becoming something like a winter ball league with many major league teams sending prospects over to get some experience in the offseason.
In addition to that, there are two international teams. One from Aukland, NZ, and one based in Geelong but featuring all professional players from Korea.
It is hard to argue that baseball isn’t an international sport these days, and for fans of the game, it should be an exciting era. I have enjoyed Australia’s performances in international play. My hometown Seattle Mariners has had an Australian pitcher, Ryan Rowland-Smith who is now an announcer for the team.
I’m also excited to see what the Australian professional league is like. The league has been independent of MLB ownership since 2016, so it is still in its early stages.
It should be fun to see where it is both in terms of the level of play, and the presentation of the games from an Australian perspective.