39 ways to balk

[Warren Willson]

Originally posted by His High Holiness
Warren;

I am not trying to open old wounds but I feel some clarifications are in order regarding your resume.

...[snip]...

Why would a wannabe major leaguer play AA ball in an off label league in Canada, when he could play AA ball in America and get noticed for AAA ball? He wouldn't, that's what. Furthermore, he would rather play single A ball in the US with a chance to move up. Most likely your so called "AA" league is composed of sub-single A players and old has beens on their way down. That sounds exactly like what we call Industrial League Baseball. It's a place for good players to play who don't qualify for single A ball and cannot give up the dream.

You'd be surprised. Your first mistake is in thinking about playing professionally from an American's perspective. Our baseball players are not the heros and idols to our fans that they are to yours. Baseball is NOT our "national pastime".

That said, there are currently 78 Australians playing professionally in the USA (March 2003 figures). There are another 64 playing non-professionally and for independent leagues and a further 59 playing within the US College system. Those are ABF figures obtained from the ABF Aussies Overseas web site. You may want to verify the facts of their teams and levels for yourself by clicking on the link provided. For every one of those I would guess, and it is ONLY a guess, there would be at least 3 or more who never venture outside the boundaries of their own country except on representative tours. They may easily be capable of playing the game at US Minor or Major League standards, but baseball just isn't the all-consuming passion for most of us that it is for even the lowliest of your guys. That's partly why you find my estimates of the comparitive standard so hard to swallow, I'm sure.

Think about what an Aussie kid must go through to play professionally in the USA, that American kids usually don't have to suffer. They have to move thousands of miles from home to another country for months on end with no prospect of seeing family or friends in the meantime. The cost alone is staggering, and many just don't see the opportunity as justifying the cost long term. Don't be mislead into thinking it is an all-expenses paid junket! Often their families have mortgaged their homes and invested thousands upon thousands of dollars to support their representative career and get them to a standard that a scout might be interested in them. OTOH South American baseball players are no less passionate than your own, and the money would be a huge incentive for them. Even the pitiful salaries at A and AA level are probably better than many of them might be used to at home. Australians in general are far less passionate about the game, and are usually fortunate enough to have a lifestyle that affords them the luxury of not always choosing the money over other attractions - no altruism required.

A couple years or so ago I wrote you essentially the same thing in a public forum and I admit that at the time, I did it for the purpose of stirring the pot. I wrote that "attack" at the instigation of a minor league umpire and an NCAA assignor who had read your writings and had some grave doubts about what kind of baseball you worked.

They were the ones who came up with the idea and the statistics which were the underpinnings of my arguement. They used me as the stalking horse because a minor league umpire and NCAA assignor cannot take a chance in a public forum like this. After all, at the time neither had been to Australia and maybe, just maybe, there is good baseball in Australia. Since then, one of them has been to Australia and reports that the best baseball there is less than single A quality.

First question I'd want to ask that guy is what part of Australia did he visit, and what level of ball did he see? Also during what season did he visit? And how many games did he see in how many cities? How can anyone make a single visit to a country the geographical size of the USA, watch a few games of ball and conclude on that basis that "the best baseball there is less than single A quality"? With all due respect, that's just nonsense. I'd believe that the best baseball he SAW may have been less than single A quality, but we don't know exactly what he saw or where, do we?

There are VAST differences in standard across the country. For example, the baseball played at State League level in Sydney or Melbourne is so far ahead of State League level anywhere else as to be virtually incomparable. In fact, I'd also say that State League in Melbourne was probably even better than State League in Sydney, where I called for 5 years at the top level. OTOH, I'd stack Newcastle District League up against the hottest baseball the whole State of Tasmania has ever seen in its 200 year history! What's more, there are significant differences between teams in any State League, which is a multi-tiered competition. Some of the adult ball played under the guise of State League, even in Sydney or Melbourne, is well below what I guess single A ball would be. I have simply suggested that the BEST standard of ball at the highest level of State League that I've seen and regularly called would be the equivalent of AA or even AAA Minors.

Peter, the whole problem with your "statistics" is that they are frequently offered in support of a false premise: in this case that you simply can't play at a professional standard unless your country can support a professional league. To put the lie to that assumption consider Australia's performance at swimming, or tennis, in the world arena. As a country with only around 19 million people we regularly put it to the USA and others with 10 times our population, and we don't have swimming or tennis scholarships to College or anywhere else! The closest we come to your scholarship system is the Australian Institute of Sport, and so few of our champions come through that system that most of us consider it irrelevant to the chances of success for a high quality athlete.

The other false premise, that you and your faceless compatriots have been trapped in, is to assume that what I write on discussion boards is a fair indication of the standard of baseball that I have called. I've told you before that I frequently explore ideas and interpretations for the sake of discussion that simply don't get a guernsey when I walk onto the diamond. I don't suppose that you're quite the a$$hole in real life that YOUR writing often portrays either! *grin* Certainly you espouse many ideas in print that I don't believe even you would put into practice on a D1 diamond.

I have an article coming out at Officiating.com entitled Baseball in Australia. I have submitted a photograph with that article of a Newcastle District League Grand Final crew. The umpire to my right - your left - was our Australian representative at the World AAA Youth Championships in Canada. Blaine will verify that fact for you. The umpire to my left - your right - has called International baseball between Australia and Japan, and represented in an IBF tournament in Guam (I think). Check who has the plate gear on. I can tell you that the guy on my left is also my District League Umpire Development Officer, and he set the crew assignments for that game with no intervention from me or anyone else, so I guess I can't be that bad of an umpire to be in that level of company.

I have talked to several major league scouts since our dustup of a couple of years ago. They assure me that the major leagues travel the globe looking for good talent and if there were any AA players in Australia or anywhere else, they have been offered positions in the American minor leagues. The economic incentives are just too great not to play in America. The toughest challenge facing foreign baseball players in America is the language barrier and that would not apply to Canadians or Australians so your players would jump at the chance.

There you go jumping to false conclusions again! Unless you can think like an Australian, and believe me on past performances YOU obviously can't, then there is no way you can reasonably conclude that our players would "jump at the chance". Some surely do, but many more opt for a different, more cautious route - such as going through the US College system. That way they can get a free education even if they don't succeed in reaching the highest ranks of their chosen sport. And the economic incentives are NOT at all what you might suspect, either. We have a pretty high standard of living down here, despite the dollar exchange rate. That aside the fact is that 16 Australians have made it into the US Majors since Joe Quinn in 1894, and most of those in the last 20 years. If the sport stays an Olympic medal event then I'd venture to say there will be many, many more in years to come.

Chris Snelling, the guy from my region playing for the Mariners, is right when he says there are more players of his standard or better at home. I've seen him come through from Under 18's and he was NOT the best player on that team! That honour fell to a guy named Adam Morissey who is now being scouted over there. Only a couple of Chris' friends are also in the professional system because your scouts are usually only interested in our PITCHERS. There are just so many good American kids who can hit, catch and throw that the scouts really don't need to chase overseas talent unless it is truly exceptional. So, they usually don't bother. That leaves a whole lot of talent that doesn't get an opportunity to shine in the home of the game. Snelling probably just got lucky! He went to the farm system because his best friend Craig Anderson - a left handed pitcher - was scouted for the Mariners. Our kids who can pitch would probably outnumber our positional players 5:1 in your professional system. That's just not a true reflection of the available talent overall.

It is simply not relevant to quote the number of players that you have called for and then seen go to the minor or major leagues. I have called dozens of players that have obtained contracts by the minor leagues but I have never called a AA game. One player that I umpired has even completed his major league career and retired. (Pete Shoureck, sp) I even threw his old man out of a couple of games. So what.

I will grant you one thing however. Australia, unlike Canada) has a reverse season from the US so a few players might travel there over the winter months. However, most US players travel to Latin America for the winter months if they want to keep playing. Many players, however, find that their bodies need a rest and their wallets need replenishing with real work.

You're right! And if that's what I was doing - saying that I called AA ball because players I once called went on to later play AA ball - I would agree that my estimates were seriously flawed. But that is NOT how I have drawn my conclusions about the standard I've called. Instead, I've drawn those conclusions based on the level of ball the participants were currently playing when I actually called them. You almost hit on it when you said that our seasons are reversed. They were reversed when I first made those estimates and they still are now.

Those players who are in your US professional, independent and College ranks all come HOME for OUR summer season. Many of them will play in our State League during your off season. Their performances have given me a pretty good feel for the comparative standards. When ABL was alive and well, we also had an influx of US players at A, AA and occasionally AAA standard. That league was aligned to the US farm system and accredited as AAA-equivalent. There were probably between 50 and 80 US professional players in Australia each year at that time. Several of those are now playing in the Majors back there, too. That also gave me a good feel for the comparative standard in State League.

That aside, be careful of making yet another false assumption: that any improvement in the standard of play here would depend on how many US players came here during your off season. One may have absolutely NOTHING to do with the other. Our standard of ball has improved markedly since the ABL and Olympics, but with each ABL team limited to only 5 overseas (read US) players on its 30-man game roster at any one time, I hardly think THEY were the cause of our improvement! We have a long history in the game, and we are a nation that reveres sporting prowess of any kind. ABL and the Olympics put the spotlight on baseball in my country and THAT brought out the best in our players IMO.

Warren, unlike the original discussion of a couple of years ago, I am NOT attacking your integrity. I believe however, that you have been misled by the promoters in Australia. In my letter to Blaine, I encouraged him to come to the US and see real minor league baseball before making any judgement about what kind of baseball he was seeing. I also told him that with the right recommendations he could call ball in the Cape Cod League (a D1 summer league in New England that is only a few hundred miles from where he lives. I know the assignor of the league and have been offered the opportunity to work there so I might be able to put in a good word.) I might encourage you to do the same thing but I recognize that it may not be practical from your standpoint.

Finally, I have read the whole thread regarding balks and I beleive that there is a cultural disconnect between Australia and America. Your observations may not apply here. There is a different level of expectation and informality in America that may not exist in Australia. This is NOT meant to put your country down. It is just to say that we are different.

Peter
[Edited by His High Holiness on Jul 1st, 2003 at 10:48 AM]

Thank goodness for that! I pride myself on my honesty, so any attacks on my integrity I find especially inflamatory, as you well know from personal experience.

You are right, and Garth is unfortunately quite wrong - I'm sure honestly so - in that I have NOT been to America, nor have I seen the standard of your professional ball at first hand. I had planned to do so but my financial circumstances have changed and that will not be possible unless things once again change for the better. It is also possible that your scouts and the promoters of our ABL were misleading in their assessments, but if that were the case why have so many young Australians done so well over there since the ABL started in 1989 and first attracted serious US interest?

I know that players like Ryan Rowland-Smith, Craig Anderson, Chris Snelling, John Stephens and even Graeme Lloyd would probably NOT be playing over there if it wasn't for the influx of scouting interest generated by the ABL. We were just too far away and South America in particular was just such a fertile ground for talent that your MLB and its scouts hardly took us seriously before then. ABL refined our talent base down into a single 8-team league and made it so much easier for the scouts to cover the depth of available talent in the allotted time.

On the subject of balks, it ha
s been suggested before that our approach to such things is way more rigid than in the run-of-the-mill US leagues. That could well be quite true. We are fortunate in having a single rule book, a single system of mechanics and a single national governing body. Our focus is toward the International baseball arena - IBF sanctioned events such as the Olympics, World AAA Youth Championships, Intercontinental Cup, etc. With that sort of focus for umpire development, our officials are guided that way and don't have any of the moderating influences of NCAA, Fed and other such systems which evidently tolerate a much more laissez faire attitude to administering the rules. I've heard that NCAA is particularly lax toward the enforcement of the balk rules. Is that truly the case?

OTOH, I think you would find that in practice we call the game a whole lot closer to the way you do than is evident from reading these discussion boards. The boards are a crucible where we all tend to boil discussions down to minutia and refine or accentuate our differences, rather than taking a broader view of the overall picture and our strong similarities. There is certainly no point in discussing the things we all agree over ad infinitum - that would be pretty darn boring, as you well know in your alter ego guise as the chief pot stirrer extraordinaire. *grin*

Thank you for at least ASKING the questions on this occasion, Peter, rather than simply suggesting I was a fraud as you did the last time. I'm happy to try and justify any assertions I may have made - like I said, I pride myself on my honesty. OTOH I don't enjoy defending myself in a hostile arena, as was that other board when this issue last arose. Keep it up and we may even find several more points of agreement in time! *grin*

Cheers