Sport Baseball Abbreviation ABF | Jurisdiction Australia | |
Affiliation World Baseball Softball Confederation Regional affiliation Baseball Confederation of Oceania | ||
The Australian Baseball Federation is the national governing body of Baseball in Australia. Baseball is played in all the mainland states and territories, but it struggles for popularity due to the popularity of many other sports, including the comparable sport of cricket, in which Australia has always been one of the leading nations. School-aged children are generally guided toward a future in cricket, rather than baseball, especially in the private schooling system.
They have been announced 25% stakeholders along with Major League Baseball, for the new Australian Baseball League that started in November, 2010. Since Australia's silver medal performance at the 2004 Athens Olympics the participation rate in most of the eastern states has remained stable, however there has been a large increase in the sport's popularity and participation in Western Australia.
In 2003, within Australia there was roughly 57,000 Australians playing baseball in around 5000 teams.
The most notable Australian-born baseball players include Dave Nilsson and Graeme Lloyd - children were once issued a poster of the two with the slogan AUSTRALIAN RULES BASEBALL.