Base...ball?
Yesterday started inauspiciously. I once again fell victim to Melbourne's evil air, the kind that when combined with slight paranoia about getting sick utterly convinces you you're coming down with a virus. So you cancel your plans and then later realise you were and are absolutely fine.
Because I was absolutely fine, plans for the evening remained intact. This meant going to the baseball. I know, I know, this requires further explanation.
A friend, let's call him "Mike", lives close to Melbourne Ballpark. Mike had been letterbox-dropped by the Melbourne Aces complete with free tickets to a game. So this little outing was Mike's idea. Mike often has ideas.
The Melbourne Aces are a team without a league. According to their Wikipedia page, they withdrew from the Australian Baseball League but did not enter another league. That sounds like a real power move, kind of like quitting your job without having a new one to go to. They didn't even announce the defection on their website (as far as I can tell), making it even more powerful.
It further appears that the Aces are playing exhibition matches with teams from South Korea's second-tier league. In this case they were playing KT Wiz from Suwon, just south of Seoul.
Melbourne Ballpark lies along a kink in Laverton Creek, amongst suburbia, rusting industrial sites, high pressure oil pipelines, Mad Max filming locations and underappreciated grasslands in Melbourne's west. Sitting in the stands you get a good view of the Princes Freeway and freight trains chugging past, avoiding the Altona Loop.
The ground itself is quite nice. It looks relatively new and you can see everything from a general admission seat. The snacks were pretty good (just remember you have to add your own sauce to your foil-wrapped sausage in a bun) and they sell Brick Lane beers.
The crowd was interesting. The ground holds 5,000 but I would be surprised if there was more than 300 there. Based on the amount of merch being worn, there is clearly a very small but committed number of baseball heads in Melbourne. A few Koreans, a few United States accents observed.
There was one group of very noisy grommies who had decided to overenthusiastically support KT Wiz and inject a bit of energy into things. I love groups like this, they are ridiculous and they always make going to the sportsball much more fun.
On this perfectly warm evening we saw the Aces win emphatically, 12-6 I think. Baseball is kind of like reverse cricket where instead of lots of runs and few outs, it's the opposite. It's also funny in that when the result is guaranteed they just end the game instead of going until the bitter end.
And so that was that.
Wait, no it wasn't!
After the game we were treated to a genuinely good fireworks display. Better than your average local council new year's eve effort even. I suppose that's one way to get people through the gates. Because what we can surmise from this experience is baseball is not about to take off around these parts.
