VALE DICK SHIRT
 
Baseball NSW is deeply saddened by the passing of NSW and Australian baseball legend Richard ”Dick” Shirt on the weekend.

Shirty, as he was universally known, first represented NSW Schoolboys in 1958 as a left handed pitcher and burst onto the Sydney grade baseball scene shortly after. He totally dominated Sydney baseball with his blazing fastball, the like of which hadn’t been seen before around these parts.

Shirty was selected in the NSW team to contest both Chrysler Cup and Claxton Shield competitions during the early 60s. It was on one of these trips to Adelaide for the Chrysler Cup when he was recruited to play for West Torrens in Adelaide, where he stayed until returning to Sydney in 1970.

In the late 60s, he was also signed by the Cincinatti Reds to play professional ball in the USA and spent 12 months in Florida playing in the Florida state League for the Reds Tampa affiliate, and he truly was one of the pioneers of Aussies playing pro ball in the U.S.

He returned to Australia still armed with his great fastball, but now with better control and was immediately selected in the Australian National Team.

One of Australian baseball’s proudest moments came at Redfern Oval in Sydney in 1968 during a Test Series against Japan’s National Team.  There were thousands of spectators in attendance witnessing a 0-0 pitching duel going into the bottom of the 9th, when Shirty stepped up to the plate. He was not known as a great hitter, but on this occasion he swung and crushed a huge home run over the centre field fence for Australia’s first ever win over the Japanese in a walk off. The huge crowd jumped the fence and mobbed Shirty as he rounded the bases.

Shirty continued to play for both NSW and Australia into the 70s, becoming NSW Manager in 1976, continuing in this role until 1982. He was then NSW’s Assistant coach until 1986.

At a club level, Shirty was responsible for the rise of the Auburn Orioles dynasty of the 70s and 80s, delivering 11 Sydney 1st grade Major League Titles during his times as Head Coach, before moving to South West Rocks on the NSW mid north coast.

In 2009 he was selected in the 75th  Anniversary Claxton Shield All Star team, and was inducted into the Australian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2012.

As he transitioned from a player to a coach, he became a great friend, mentor and a hugely positive inspiration for countless junior and senior players, many of whom onto have great careers of their own as a result of his guidance.
Shirty was a larger than life figure, a colourful character who brought large crowds to the game. He was truly a one off and his influence on baseball in NSW is almost unsurpassed.

The NSW and Australian baseball communities mourn the loss of one of our greats and offer our heartfelt condolences to his family.

The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) today released the Official Tokyo 2020 Olympic Baseball Media Guide. The digital publication can be viewed as an online flipping book and/or downloaded as a PDF here.
 
The 81-page media guide includes key information about the upcoming Olympic baseball event, including rosters, schedules, tournament formats, venues and historical results.

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Baseball event will be played from 28 July to 7 August, with baseball's world No. 1 Japan, No. 3 Korea (defending Gold Medallists), No. 4 USA, No. 5 Mexico, No. 7 Dominican Republic and No. 24 Israel.
 
The Olympic Baseball opener will be held at Fukushima Azuma Baseball Stadium, while Yokohama Stadium will serve as the main venue.
 
Baseball makes its return to the Olympics for the first time since the Beijing 2008 Games.

To Our Members,

Given the ongoing number of infectious cases in the community, the current lockdown will be extended for at least another two weeks until 11:59pm on Friday, 30 July.
 
This means the restrictions currently in place across Greater Sydney including the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour will remain in place until this time.

• Outdoor public gatherings (including exercise) will be limited to two people (excluding members of the same household).
• A person must exercise in their local government area or no further than 10 kilometres from their home.
• Car-pooling with members who are not in your household is not permitted if a person is travelling to exercise or engage in outdoor recreation.
• A person over 18 must carry documentary evidence showing their address and show it to police on request (including when undertaking exercise).
• A person cannot enter Greater Sydney for the purpose of exercise or outdoor recreation.
• Browsing in shops is prohibited, plus only one person per household, per day, may leave the home for shopping.

 
No community sport (either training or a match) can proceed in Greater Sydney including the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour.
 
Restrictions in Regional NSW remain unchanged. The following restrictions relating to sport and active recreation will continue to apply to regional areas until Friday 30 July 2021:

• Visitors to households will be limited to 5 guests – including children;
• Masks will be compulsory in all indoor non-residential settings, including workplaces, and at organised outdoor events;
• You must be seated when consuming alcohol in an indoor area of non-residential premises in NSW. This includes hospitality venues (such as restaurants, pubs and registered clubs) and nightclubs, as well as outdoor gatherings or stadiums.
• Dance and gym classes limited to 20 per class (masks must be worn);
• The one person per four square metre rule will be re-introduced for all indoor and outdoor settings;
• Outdoor seated events will be limited to 50% seated capacity;
• Masks must be worn by spectators, officials and players (over the age of 12) at all times to training and matches unless they are warming up or playing in the game.

​The NSW Government COVID-19 website continues to be updated as restrictions change.

Baseball NSW would like to announce the Capitation Fees for the 2021-2022 Season and that there will be an increase from 2020-2021, the first time since 2018.

Additionally, in 2019, BNSW reduced junior fees to assist Clubs as they transferred to the Active Kids voucher program. Consequently, in many categories, the fee will be lower than the 2018 charges.

This increase is required primarily due to the CPI increases over the last four years in the operational costs of the League, COVID reductions in member numbers and the ability for BNSW to continue to deliver value to our members through the following initiatives:

• Development of a new eLearning platform
• Registration platform (BA no longer subsidise)
• Child Safety Program
• Grant procurement opportunities
• Ongoing Facility Strategy & Planning
• Regional development
• Enhanced pathway and development programs
• Promoting and implementing Baseball5 programs
• Social and digital media resources
• Equipment upgrades
• Increased administrative costs 

The changes are as follows:

• BNSW League Age 2 to 8, along with our ‘Challenger’ category, have increased from $10 to $20.
• Our League Age 9 to Seniors has increased from $60 to $70
• Baseball5 now has two categories;
  • Existing Members (already registered with BNSW/BA) will be $5 with no BA fee
  • New Members (only playing in a standalone Baseball5 competition) will be $25 with an additional $12 BA fee
• Fees only available through Baseball NSW
  • Both Junior and Senior Short Program fees will be $40
  • Both Junior and Senior Tournament fees will be $10

 
We continue to encourage everyone to take advantage of the NSW Office of Sport’s Active Kids Vouchers, for which NSW residents aged between 4½ and 18 are eligible. You can check here for details. 

We continue to aim for our NSW members to have the most affordable fees across the country, which this fee structure does.
 
Baseball Australia has not altered its fees for this coming financial year.
 
To download our new registration app, click here.

The full list of capitation fees is outlined in the full announcement.

To Our Members,
 
Following the announcement from the NSW Premier, the current stay-at-home orders will be extended across all of Greater Sydney including the Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Wollongong until 11.59pm Friday, 16 July.
 
Everyone in Greater Sydney, Blue Mountains, Central Coast and Wollongong must stay at home unless it is for an essential reason.
 
Persons covered by the Order cannot leave their place of residence without a reasonable excuse. The reasonable excuses mirror those in earlier restrictions and include:

• obtaining food, travelling to attend essential work or education (where it is not possible to do at home);
• exercise outdoors in groups of no more than 10;
• medical and caring reasons – including obtaining a COVID-19 vaccination;
• family and carer obligations and compassionate reasons, including where 2 people are in a relationship but do not necessarily live together;

 
Regional areas (outside of Greater Sydney, Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour)
 
The following restrictions relating to sport and active recreation will continue to apply to regional areas until Friday 16 July 2021:

• Visitors to households will be limited to 5 guests – including children;
• Masks will be compulsory in all indoor non-residential settings, including workplaces, and at organised outdoor events;
• Drinking while standing at indoor venues will not be allowed;
• Dance and gym classes limited to 20 per class (masks must be worn);
• The one person per four square metre rule will be re-introduced for all indoor and outdoor settings;
• Outdoor seated events will be limited to 50% seated capacity.

No community sport (either training or a match) can proceed in Greater Sydney including the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour.

​The NSW Government COVID-19 website continues to be updated as restrictions change.
​

Baseball NSW has a very rich and successful history competing at the National Championship level and this is your opportunity to lead our teams to National Championship.

We are taking Expressions of Interests for the 2022 AYC Metro Coaching Staff. The voluntary positions for NSW Metro include:

• Manager (Head Coach) 

• Assistant Coach 
• Pitching Coach
• Development Coach
• Executive Officer

The EOI for the Country team will be released in due course.​

Applications close COB Friday August 13, 2021.

For more information, including registering and duty statements for all positions, download the full EOI document by clicking on the button below.

​We advise our members that there have been no changes to Public Health Order from our June 29 announcement. Members are reminded that exercising in groups of up to 10 under the current Public Health Order is permitted whilst adhering to the 1 person per 4 square meter rule.

​However, clubs should not be conducting training sessions under the guise of exercise. Please apply and adhere to these restrictions in the spirit they are meant and do not try to stretch the limits.
 
We will continue working with the NSW Health, and the Office of Sport and will provide our members with an update relating to the restrictions lapsing on June 9th  in due course.
 
The NSW Government COVID-19 website continues to be updated as restrictions change.

Boral Team Australia will not compete at two underage World Cup events scheduled for later in the year amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Baseball Australia this week finalised a decision not to enter teams into the 2021 WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup in the US and the U-12 Baseball World Cup slated for Taiwan.

The decision also covers any qualification events for the two World Cups.

Baseball Australia performance pathways and player development general manager Michael Crooks said the health risks presented by COVID-19, logistics and cost, including that of insurance, were key factors in the decision.

“It has been an extremely difficult decision to make and a frustrating one for our players but there were too many significant obstacles in our way,” Crooks said.

“The decision was not made lightly, and our review included feedback from a number of government departments in Australia.

“At the end of the day we need to put the health and wellbeing of our players and staff first and there were too many risks for us to confidently do so in a financially responsible manner.”

Crooks said Baseball Australia would continue to work closely with players who had been part of the U-18 selection process.

He said a National Junior Camp for later in the year would be locked in shortly and a team would still be selected to appropriately recognise players for their performances.

Crooks said the camp would also provide a great development opportunity and showcase players to scouts on the ground and into the US through Baseball Australia’s technology partnerships.

The U-18 World Cup is scheduled to be held in Florida from September 10-19.

Dates for the U-12 World Cup in Tainan have not been locked in yet.
​
Boral Team Australia’s national men’s team earlier this month withdrew from the WBSC Final Olympic Qualifier in Mexico due to “insurmountable” challenges.

To Our Members,
 
Following the announcement of stay at home restrictions for Greater Sydney, the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour over the weekend, the Public Health (COVID-19 Temporary Movement and Gathering Restrictions) Order 2021 has been published. This Public Health Order replaces the previous Order and outlines restrictions across the state of NSW.
 
The stay-at-home restrictions apply to any person who lives in, usually works in, or usually attends a university or other tertiary education facility in Greater Sydney, including the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour. 
​
Persons covered by the stay-at-home restrictions cannot leave their place of residence without a reasonable excuse to do so. Reasonable excuses include;

1. Obtaining food or other goods and services in Greater Sydney;
2. For the purposes of work or education where it is not possible to do so from home;
3. Exercising in Greater Sydney;
4. Medical or caring reasons, including obtaining a COVID-19 vaccination.

 
No community sport (either training or a match) can proceed in Greater Sydney including the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour. As such, Baseball NSW has postponed all baseball-related activities in Greater Sydney, including the Central Coast, Blue Mountains, Wollongong and Shellharbour until Saturday, 10 July 2021 or advised otherwise. Baseball related activities in the regional areas where stay-at-home restrictions do not apply are permitted to continue whilst adhering to the current restrictions.

Please apply and adhere to these restrictions in the spirit they are meant and do not try to stretch the limits. Where practical, we encourage all persons in Greater Sydney to limit the number of people they encounter (i.e. go outdoors and exercise on your own or in groups of 2 – 3 people, rather than groups of 10 where possible).

Clubs in Regional NSW are reminded to review their COVID-19 Safety Plans and ensure they are up to date. All clubs are also encouraged to review the Public Health Order and stay up to date with the latest changes on the NSW Government COVID-19 website.
 
Upon return to activity, all participants, clubs, and associations are to adhere to the Public Health Order. Clubs are to refer to their COVID Safe Plan, previously been lodged with Service NSW. Please refer to the Baseball NSW Return to Activity document for guidance on the precautionary measured required to ensure a safe return to activities.