2012-13 ABL Season

[brewcrew82]

Standings after 8 rounds

Canberra Cavalry 16-9
Perth Heat 16-10 (0.5)
Sydney Blue Sox 14-12 (2.5)
--------------------------
Adelaide Bite 12-14 (4.5)
Brisbane Bandits 11-14 (5)
Melbourne Aces 8-18 (8.5)

No, your eyes are not playing tricks on you. The Perth Heat are no longer in first place in the ABL...This makes the first time in 696 days they have not been the top of the table.

[brewcrew82]

I'd like to take this moment to thank all those who read this thread and with you all a happy and safe holiday period. I hope you find it informative and as always, if there are any questions or comments please do so either in this thread or via PM.

I apologise for not doing in depth reports as I have attempted to do in previous years but I just don't have the time with work etc.

[brewcrew82]

27th December

Brisbane Bandits 5 d Melbourne Aces 1

Adelaide Bite 9 d Sydney Blue Sox 7

[Tadasimha]

I'd like to take this moment to thank all those who read this thread and with you all a happy and safe holiday period. I hope you find it informative and as always, if there are any questions or comments please do so either in this thread or via PM.

I apologise for not doing in depth reports as I have attempted to do in previous years but I just don't have the time with work etc.

Thank you for taking the time to update standings and pass along the scores. I try to follow the streaming games when I can but usually they're starting at 2 AM my time in the states.

[brewcrew82]

My pleasure... tonight's game from Perth was a good one. It's 1:30am over here and the game has just ended.

[brewcrew82]

28th December

Sydney Blue Sox 3 d Adelaide Bite 2

Brisbane Bandits 4 d Melbourne Aces 0 (Chris Smith of the Bandits set an ABL record with 15 K's in the game)

Canberra Cavalry 3 d Perth Heat 2 (12 innings)

[brewcrew82]

29th December

Sydney Blue Sox 2 d Adelaide Bite 1

Melbourne Aces 5 d Brisbane Bandits 3

Canberra Cavalry 8 d Perth Heat 6

[Tadasimha]

29th December

Sydney Blue Sox 2 d Adelaide Bite 1

Melbourne Aces 5 d Brisbane Bandits 3

Canberra Cavalry 3 d Perth Heat 6

Got a typo there - the Cavalry won 8 to 6

Wow - the Aces won one! Lots of young guys pressing at the plate, maybe this will give them some confidence to finish strong.

[brewcrew82]

Thanks...pretty unforgivable seeing as I was watching the game.

Really impressive comeback by the Cavalry last night scoring 7 runs over the last two innings. Really sold me on them actually being a contender.
Still predicting a Perth vs Sydney final though.

[Tadasimha]

Thanks...pretty unforgivable seeing as I was watching the game.

Really impressive comeback by the Cavalry last night scoring 7 runs over the last two innings. Really sold me on them actually being a contender.
Still predicting a Perth vs Sydney final though.

I was able to see the first part of the game and thought Perth had it well in hand before I had to shut it off (early class to teach on Saturdays) - would have liked to have seen the come back.

One thing is certain, Perth has been caught by a couple of other teams this season.

[brewcrew82]

In a hole early tonight too. They have certainly struggled of late. Just think with a loss in this game, they slip to third behind Sydney.

While not making excuses, one has to wonder if playing in the Asia series effects them somewhat. The Heat will find form again this year, they are too good of a team to slump for too long, but it is good for the league that it is a little more open than it was last year.

[brewcrew82]

30th December

Sydney Blue Sox 4 d Adelaide Bite 0

Brisbane Bandits 6 d Melbourne Aces 1

Canberra Cavalry 10 d Perth Heat 7

[brewcrew82]

31st December

Perth Heat 19 d Canberra Cavalry 12

[brewcrew82]

Standings after 9 rounds

Canberra Cavalry 19-10
Perth Heat 17-13 (2.5)
Sydney Blue Sox 17-13 (2.5)
-----------------------
Brisbane Bandits 14-15 (5)
Adelaide Bite 13-17 (6.5)
Melbourne Aces 9-21 (10.5)

[USA101]

Do you guys think Canberra's playing success is playing a major role in there financial success and growth in fan support? Or is the sport really growing in the city?

[NewEnglandAmazins]

Sounds like Canberra's number of imports has upset someone:
Team USA (aka Canberra) extend lead over Perth – But watch out for rampaging Sydney

But don't all ABL teams have about the same amount of imports?

[brewcrew82]

Do you guys think Canberra's playing success is playing a major role in there financial success and growth in fan support? Or is the sport really growing in the city?

Yes. All Australian cities have a big bandwagon element to them. Historically, baseball is not that well represented in Canberra but the Cavalry were born from a grass roots effort to get a team in the ABL rather than just being granted one as the other five teams were.

[brewcrew82]

Sounds like Canberra's number of imports has upset someone:
Team USA (aka Canberra) extend lead over Perth – But watch out for rampaging Sydney

But don't all ABL teams have about the same amount of imports?

In the last couple of seasons the Cavalry had many more imports than the rest of the league (Sydney had the least amount for those curious), this is likely due to Canberra being such a small town with such a small player base but at the start of the season the ABL implemented a rule on how many imports players could have on their roster at any time.

I have a feeling, though I can no longer find a roster with home towns, that Canberra still has more imports than other teams in the league though.

[Richard]

Is the ABL league drawing fans?

[brewcrew82]

Canberra has had decent growth this year but other teams are drawing less this year with Melbourne really struggling. Melbourne moved from a really good location at the showgrounds to a specialised baseball facility outside of the city and are getting reported crowds of 250-300 people on some nights.
Adelaide, as I have mentioned before, draw less than their reported crowds. So while it looks on paper they are drawing well, the numbers are down.
League wide Sunday afternoons seem to be especially bad, with teams drawing very small crowds. This is due to the fact that local city baseball comps are being played at the same time as the ABL games and players/club members make up the majority of ABL crowds.

In my opinion the ABL has failed to capture the non-baseball fan and because of this is seeing yearly attendances slip on a yearly basis.

[brewcrew82]

3rd January

Canberra Cavalry 10 d Perth Heat 1 (approx 1300 attendance)

Adelaide Bite 7 d Sydney Blue Sox 3 (658 attendance, though that seemed a little generous)

Melbourne Aces 6 d Brisbane Bandits 1 (586 attendance)

[Tadasimha]

Canberra has had decent growth this year but other teams are drawing less this year with Melbourne really struggling. Melbourne moved from a really good location at the showgrounds to a specialised baseball facility outside of the city and are getting reported crowds of 250-300 people on some nights.
Adelaide, as I have mentioned before, draw less than their reported crowds. So while it looks on paper they are drawing well, the numbers are down.
League wide Sunday afternoons seem to be especially bad, with teams drawing very small crowds. This is due to the fact that local city baseball comps are being played at the same time as the ABL games and players/club members make up the majority of ABL crowds.

In my opinion the ABL has failed to capture the non-baseball fan and because of this is seeing yearly attendances slip on a yearly basis.

The Melbourne fans on Facebook whined immediately about the change of venue, it was really sad to see. I know people who make treks of four to five hours to see games in Milwaukee, Chicago and St Louis regularly and from what I've read it's really not difficult to get to the new park (which is a huge improvement over the showgrounds based upon the pictures I've seen of both).

[brewcrew82]

For the issues the Show Grounds had as a venue, at least it was in a central location. The new ballpark is a reasonable distance away from the CBD and in a city where a lot of venues are close to the city (Melbourne), it's not hard to see why they don't come.

[brewcrew82]

4th January

Melbourne Aces 7 d Brisbane Bandits 3 (421 attendance on a Friday night)

Sydney Blue Sox 4 d Adelaide Bite 3 (909 attendance)

Canberra Cavalry 16 d Perth Heat 9 (1530 attendance)

Once again, the smallest market in the league (by a large margin) has the highest attendance.

[brewcrew82]

5th January

Melbourne Aces 2 d Brisbane Bandits 0 (902 attendance)

Adelaide Bite 9 d Sydney 4 (1159 attendance)

Perth Heat 6 d Canberra Cavalry 5 (1278 attendance)