ince this article was essentially my editor’s idea, I’ll let him ask the questions from here on out.

How is amateur baseball in Australia organized?

One legacy of the Australian Federation of States that occurred quite peacefully and voluntarily on January 1, 1901, is that we have a great passion for national consistency among our sporting bodies. A national body governs all of our major sports — rugby league, rugby union, Australian rules football, soccer, and cricket — and most minor sports are similarly blessed. Baseball is no exception.

All Australian baseball is under the control of the Australian Baseball Federation (ABF). That means that we have a single national authority for our rules and their interpretation. Jealous yet? We play by U.S. professional rules modified only for political correctness and called the Official Australian Baseball Rules. We use the UDP mechanics and we accept all PBUC/NAPBL written interpretations of those rules. That holds for all levels of the game above T-ball.

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