IT was a weekend which has been a long time coming for the Mount Gambier and District Baseball League (MGDBL).
Yet it was an event which came together in less than eight weeks.
The Australian Baseball League’s four-game series between the Auckland Tuatara and Adelaide Bite was held from Friday through to Sunday at Blue Lake Sports Park and has been hailed a huge success from all involved.
From MGDBL president Ben Green, to the top of the ABL, everyone involved was pleased with the result.
During the initial greeting on Thursday night at the MGDBL clubrooms Green referenced a well-known baseball movie and welcomed everyone to their own “field of dreams”.
He went on to say “build it and they will come”, which they certainly did in droves to see what all the fuss was about.
Somewhere between 600 and 800 people attended each of the four games over the course of the three days, which suggested an interest in the sport at the national elite level here in the Limestone Coast.
For Green it was certainly a dream come true for the league.
“We are totally excited to have the ABL playing here finally,” he said on Sunday.
“We have had a couple of past presidents who have fought to have it down here.
“It has finally happened and we are pretty happy with it.”
From the initial phone call regarding Mount Gambier hosting the series there was never any doubt about the MGDBL taking on the job.
“When I got the phone call there was no way I was going to turn it down,” Green said.
“A quick call to Bruce (Morale) and Michael (Summers) and we thought we would give it a go.
“We formed a sub committee and worked out what we were going to do, who we were going to speak to at council to make it work.
“The council jumped right on board with us, then we had to get the ground up to scratch.
“We had an email from the ABL to say how they wanted the ground to look, so we had to build it up to their standard.”
Over the following weeks the league set about its task, with a dedicated group of volunteers and Mount Gambier city council, to ensure the series would go ahead with no major dramas.
The ground lights were sorted out with the help of local businesses and once the first pitch was about to be thrown the nerves began to set in.
“We were a bit nervous at first, but once they started playing and it got dark it went well,” Green said.
“They (ABL) saw how the ground lights up at night – there are no dark spots at all.
“Because of how the weekend went it probably will not be the last time we have it here.
“After talking with Cam Vale (Baseball Australia CEO) and Ben Foster (Baseball Australia chief operating officer) it looks like they will have it here again and other championship events as well.”
While the weekend put a big focus on baseball at the top level, the importance to the MGDBL goes much further.
“It is huge for us,” Green said.
“It helps us get our junior levels back up.
“Hopefully having the level of baseball like this here will help to get the juniors back again.
“The drive for us is to build those numbers back up.”
