The 'Effervescent Grant Denyer' with the Australian Team

Australian Series Media Coverage

Throughout the Olympic Qualifier Series at Blacktown Olympic Park the Australian Baseball Federation, along with BVM, managed to secure a vast amount of media coverage through several mediums such as radio, print and television.  To the reporters and cameramen that visited the park...Thank-you. Your support is greatly appreciated and we hope to continue a strong working relationship with you all.  Australian Baseball does not recieve the recognition or publicity that it deserves, so we therefore hope that your visit to the baseball field was enjoyable and that you will return in the not too distant future.

Outlined below are just a few of the media opportunities we encountered throughout the week leading up to and during the 2004 Oceania vs Africa Olympic Qualifier series.

Television:

• Those of you who managed to see the Weather cross on Sunrise last Wednesday morning would have to agree that the National Australian Baseball Team are definately a fantastic group of guys.  The way they presented themselves to the nation was unreal!! They showed the country that even though a vast majority of the players are professionally signed International baseball players, they are still VERY Australian. Their sense of humour, their personalities and their 'decorum' are an asset to the Australian Baseball Community and the ABF would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank the team for not only getting up at 5.30am, but for representing their sporting community so outstandingly.  So THANKS guys!
• Monday and Tuesday night saw the team starring on Sports Tonight and the First at Five news on Channel Ten...well done to the players involved in this shot.
• Channel Seven paid a visit on Tuesday afternoon to shoot a story for their soon to return sports show Sportsworld. Many thanks go to the 'stars of the show': Jon Deeble, Tony Harris, Dave Nilsson, Craig Anderson, and James Darby. This will air when the show returns...the exact date is yet to be confirmed.
• Wednesday of course saw Grant Denyer and his team from the top rating breakfast show in the country - Sunrise- feature the team on the 1/2 hourly weather crosses on Channel Seven. Grant and the Channel 7 crew were HEAPS of fun and a HUGE thank-you goes out to the entire Sunrise panel for an amazing experience.
• ESPN popped in on Thursday to take some promotional shots for their upcoming live Major League Baseball coverage that will be shown on Foxtel and Austar when the pro-ball season begins....So keep your eyes peeled on ESPN to see Trent Durrington, PJ Bevis, Craig Anderson, Phil Stockman, John Stephens and Chris Oxspring in their acting debut.
• Game one drew SBS and Channel Ten to Blacktown Olympic Park for some baseball action, which aired the next day.
• SBS returned on Friday morning to do a follow up story on Trent Durrington, Rod Van Buizen, Jon Deeble and Craig Anderson....the return visit proving just how wonderful our boys really are!
• Friday nights game brought Inside Sports T.V out to the game.  Their show is set to air on Sunday 15th February on Channel 10 at 4pm....so don't miss it!!!  Some of their stars include Umpire Iain Rouse, Don Knapp, Dave Nilsson and coach Jon Deeble.
• Sports Tonight also came out on Friday night..thanks once again for their support.
• Saturday night brought Channel Seven.  Being that Channel seven will be the station airing the Olympic Games, they sent a crew from their promotional department to grab some footage of the Australian representative baseball team. This footage will be used to promote the games in the upcoming months. So keep watching Channel Seven!

Print:

Many thanks to the stream of journalists and photographers that came out to Blacktown Olympic Park throughout the week. An example of some of the newspapers that printed something one the event are as follows:

- Sydney Morning Herald   - Daily Telegraph      - Blacktown Sun     - Manly Daily      - Mt Druitt News    - Jewish News

- Cumberland News Ltd    - Hills Newspaper     - Penrith News        - Parramatta News    -AAP     - AND MANY MORE

This list is not a complete listing of the newspapers that printed articles on the series, and we apologise to those who have not been listed.  However, we thank you for your support and hope to work in close conjunction with you in the near future.