Kingsley Collins

2 November 2018

Expansion of the Australian Baseball League will inevitably draw greater local and international interest to our version of the game, to the clubs, to the players, to our facilities and more broadly to what Australia has to offer as a tourist destination or as a potential business partner.

Some time ago, we were contacted by a self-avowed United States “baseball traveller” seeking information on a whole range of matters prior to his spending last summer season touring our country while taking in ABL games in all six host cities.

Baseball Oogie describes himself as “just a guy from the birthplace of baseball with a hat, a scorecard, and a yen to visit all places baseball.”

He is a person with a wealth of experience and knowledge of United States baseball – at all levels – and he has dedicated a substantial portion of his life to watching and writing about the game in other countries, including Canada, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

His experiences and observations – covering more, far more than baseball - have been recorded in blog form over the past twelve years.

Baseball Oogie - whose sobriquet will make sense to baseball people - recently messaged us to notify of an illustrated update to the blog that covers his 2017/18 summer as a “baseball traveller” Down Under. Largely personal in nature, the blog nevertheless offers a captivating impression of Australian culture and lifestyle from a visitor’s perspective.

While observations on our facilities, on catering, on baseball culture and on the overall standard of the Australian Baseball League are at times secondary to other lengthy and more detailed visitor considerations documented by "Loogie", this is genuinely engaging, informative and thought-provoking material that we recommend to all – especially those with a close interest in how our sport and our country might be projected to international visitors, of whom we are certainly going to see far more during 2018/19 and in seasons to come.