History

Our Story

The history of baseball in Australia dates from 1888 when an American professional team toured South Australia, and as a result both junior and senior teams were formed here. The first interstate match was played in 1889 between South Australia and Victoria before a crowd of 5,000 spectators. The game was played at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground.

In 1931, District Baseball was introduced to South Australia. In 1934, Mr N A Claxton, the Past President of the South Australian Baseball League (SABL) donated a shield for the winning state team, and from that time the Claxton Shield became the goal of State Baseball teams to indicate their baseball prowess. In 1951 a sub-committee of the SABL investigated the feasibility of playing night baseball. Negotiations with various local councils resulted in the City of Kensington and Norwood installing lighting at Norwood Oval, and night games commenced in 1952. Over 100,000 people attended night games in the inaugural year. These were the first games played under lights in Australia.

A successful six team competition continued up until the 1968/69 season when the change from winter to summer baseball was made. A night competition was reintroduced in season 1986/87. Subsequently the Australian Baseball League was formed, and a national senior series was commenced. This led to the formation of the Adelaide Giants.

The Sturt Baseball Club was one of the earliest baseball clubs in South Australia (Goodwood being the first), being formed in 1908. The first home for Sturt was a site in the South Parklands. The original clubhouse was an 8m square green galvanised iron shed, on the site now occupied by the Pavilion On The Park. The Sturt Baseball Club moved to its present home at Norman Reserve in 1961.

The following details were recorded in the Advertiser on 24 April, 1908

A practice match was played on the South Parklands on Saturday afternoon between the Goodwood and Sturt teams. The form displayed by the old players showed that they had not forgotten the grand old game of baseball, and the performance of the new members was creditable. Goodwood 12 d Sturt 7.

Sturt BC Player Achievements 

In 1988 Sturt player Mark Hutton became the first Australian to be signed to a professional contract, with the famous New York Yankees. In 1992 Mark became the first Australian pitcher to start a Major League Baseball game. He has since been followed to the USA by five other Sturt players: Craig Watts (LA Dodgers 1991), Tom Becker (NY Yankees 1993, Detroit Tigers 2000), Paul Mildren (Florida Marlins 2000), Tom Brice (Chicago WhiteSox 2002), Angus Roeger (Philadelphia Phillies 2007) and Jordan McArdle (Arizona Diamondbacks 2017, Philadelphia Phillies 2019).

Sturt Baseball Club Historical Timeline