INTRODUCING the Australian Baseball Hall of Fame

 

It is with great pleasure that on behalf of the Board and the ABF Heritage Committee, I am able to announce to you the establishment of the Australian Baseball Hall of Fame (HoF).

 

The concept of an Australian Baseball of Fame has been long talked about. ABF President Ron Finlay and then Director Bob Heiler took the bull by the horns back in 2002 when through the Board, it was decided to create a Heritage Committee, whose primary task would be to establish the HoF. This Board appointed sub-committee includes Joe Clark, Doug Corker, Brian Davis, Robert Laidlaw, Geoff Robertson, Kevin Cantwell, Peter Dihm, Bob Heiler and Ron Finlay. It is hard to imagine a set of people with a better feel, knowledge and understanding of Australian baseball’s heritage than this group.

 

The Heritage Committee developed the selection criteria and parameters for the HoF nomination and induction process. This was no simple task in itself and obviously a critical aspect was and will remain the integrity of that process.

 

Determining the list of inaugural inductees was also a vexing and challenging task. Considering that 2005 inductees include players that played the game more than 100 years ago, the presence of Australian baseball’s best historians on the Heritage Committee was vital. Although there will always be conjecture about “who is in and who is not”, the inaugural list of inductees is packed with many of the absolute legends of the game, names that conjure up warm and heroic memories.

 

Oddly, it was the modern, or ABL era that presented significant selection challenges to the Committee, as several members actually had lees to do with modern era than the pre-ABL days. Fortunately, thanks to Flintoff and Dunn’s Australian Major League Alamanac, as well as comprehensive ABL records, there exists an abundance of empirical data available from the ABL. The Heritage Committee also sought out expert opinion from outside the committee in respect to the modern ABF era.

 

The Australian Baseball Federation congratulates all inaugural inductees this is a wonderful achievement and we take great pleasure in releasing the presenting the list of inductees to you in this E News.

 

To view a full list of the inductees please CLICK HERE>>

 

The result of all of the hard work will be on full display on the night of the 27^th of January, which is the date of the inaugural HoF Induction Dinner. This will be one of baseball’s finest hours, when Hall of Fame players and coaches will be inducted into, and essentially, become the inaugural Australian Baseball Hall of Fame. Olympian, and former Major League player Shayne Bennett will ‘MC” the evening, and there will be many other attractions, including special guests, our Silver Medal athletes from the Athens Olympic Games.

 

Check out the ABF website for Hall of Fame Dinner details, or call event coordinators Michelle Anderson or Jennifer Stockman of this office for further information...come along and help us celebrate.