The Russell Crowe Invitational

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5 May, 2000

The film, Gladiator, is released in the United States to instant Oscar buzz and commercial success. It's 171 minutes of gladiatorial combat and Roman political intrigue and stars Russell Crowe, the greatest actor in the world*, in the lead role of Maximus Decimus Meridius.

2 August, 2000

Russell Crowe is instilled as an early favourite to win the Best Actor award. His main competition, Tom Hanks, is reportedly outshone by a volleyball in Cast Away.

Now, this bit of information may seem unimportant but it's vital to this whole story: Russell Crowe was born in New Zealand, he moved to Australia when he was 4, moved back to New Zealand when he was 14, before moving back to Australia when he was 21. Is he a New Zealander or an Aussie? The New Zealand newspapers demanded to know.

The Right Honourable Winston Peters, the Member of Parliament for Tauranga introduced a motion to the House on this day.

Rt Hon Winston Peters: Mr Speaker, I seek leave of the House to introduce a motion to congratulate the thespian Russell Crowe on his performance in the motion picture Gladiator. It is a true tour de force, you can check out my full review in the latest issue of my zine: Winning with Winston. I also ask this parliament to reaffirm that Russell Crowe should be considered a New Zealander, not an Australian. Those chinless scoundrels across the Tasman have taken credit for too much of our accomplishments over the years. This aggression will not stand.

The motion passed 119-1, the only dissenter was ACT MP Rodney Hide. He was grumpy that Winston had taken one of his bottles of whiskey the night before.

3 August, 2000

You see, New Zealand had a bit of a chip on its shoulder about Australia. Over the years, Australia had the habit of claiming New Zealand inventions as their own. Fictional character Fred Dagg, the desert Pavlova, the racehorse Phar Lap, and the rock bands Crowded House and Split Enz all form part of the list of New Zealand things that Australia had laid a claim to. Russell Crowe was the latest in this list.

The Australian parliament didn't respond kindly to Winston Peter's motion. Prime Minister John Howard called a press conference.

Hon. John Howard: Look, we do we want. Howard out!

He then carefully placed the microphone on the ground. It didn't quite provide the drama of dropping one on the ground but microphones are expensive.

20 September, 2000

The war between Australia and New Zealand over Russell Crowe was growing intense. His march towards winning the Oscar was proving to have the momentum of an runway freight train. It was all the news could talk about, no one in either country were aware that the Olympics was literally happening in Sydney right then. They were much too focused on this Russell Crowe thing.

26 October, 2000

Russell Crowe attends the fifth game of the World Series between the New York Yankees and the New York Mets at Shea Stadium. The Yankees win and Russell Crowe goes away thinking that baseball is "quite neat".

2 November, 2000

Australia and New Zealand agree to a rap battle between the two Prime Ministers, as was the style at the time to settle the issue of Russell Crowe.

Crowe hears about this and begins the process of making his way to Canberra from New Jersey, where's he filming A Beautiful Mind. He elects to travel by sea, he'll swim the entire way.

3 November, 2000

Crowe arrives in Canberra and makes his way to Parliament House where everyone is getting ready for the rap battle that's about to take place. Helen Clark from New Zealand is in one corner of the room, John Howard from Australia is in the other. Helen Clark points to a bit of paper and asks her aide if she can say this word. Her aide says no. Crowe enters the room.

Russell Crowe: Stop this madness, how many more people must die in this conflict?
Helen Clark: No one, literally no one has died.
Russell Crowe: I find it humbling that everyone is so passionate in this discussion. How all-consuming it is, I mean, John, did you even notice that the entirety of Western Australia disappeared two months ago?
John Howard: Wait, what?
Russell Crowe: It's an important issue: is the greatest actor that has ever existed a New Zealander or an Aussie? It's worth fighting over, it's worth dying over but I have an idea of how we can solve this without bloodshed.

He pauses for dramatic effect. The pause goes on too long as he waits for someone to start talking so he can interrupt.

Helen Clark: How?
Russell Crowe: [interrupting] Baseball. It's an amazing sport that I invented. We'll get some teams from Australia, some teams from New Zealand and they can play a whole bunch of games against each other. The team that wins gets some cool trophies, but most importantly the country that produces the winning team gets to claim Russell Crowe as their own for a year.
John Howard: Sounds fair.
Helen Clark: New Zealand Aotearoa officially accepts.

Both Prime Ministers suddenly start singing their national anthems.

25 March, 2001

Russell Crowe wins the Academy Award for Best Actor in Gladiator. The film also picks up awards for Best Picture, Best Sound Mixing, Best Costume Design, and Best Visual Effects. But who cares about all those filler awards? Russell Crowe was on top of the world.

Since his meeting back in November, a lot of work had gone into getting this baseball league up and running and it was all coming together nicely. Opening day was scheduled for early October -- just in time for the New Zealand and Australian summers. They ran a small tournament in Queenstown in January and it was a huge hit.

Finally, the question of Russell Crowe was about to be settled.

Coming Up: actual baseball! I promise!


* Source: Russell Crowe

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So the Russell Crowe Invitational was born. A lot of deals were wrangled and what came out of the chaos was 20 teams ready to take the field on October 2001. 10 from New Zealand and 10 from Australia.

The teams were split into a conference for each country, each team will play each team within their conference 12 times and teams outside their conference 6 times for a total of 168 games.

The top four teams from each conference will make the playoffs, and play two rounds of seven game series against each other until we're left with two teams: the best from Australia and New Zealand.

These two teams will play a seven game series called the Trans Tasman Classic. The winner of this series will allow their country to claim credit for the acting talent of Russell Crowe.

Kiwi Conference

• Auckland Aces
• Bay of Plenty Steamrollers
• Canterbury Red Knights
• Hawke's Bay Vikings
• Northland Giants
• Otago Thunderbolts
• Taranaki Bulls
• Tasman Sunbirds
• Waikato River Bandits
• Wellington Lions

Kangaroo Conference

• Adelaide Zips
• Bendigo Gold Rush
• Canberra Power
• Geelong Green Sox
• Illawarra Hawks
• Melbourne Sting
• Newcastle Ducks
• Queensland Firebirds
• Sydney City Sharks
• Tasmania Tigers

The first edition of the Russell Crowe Invitational kicks off on the 5th of October, 2001.

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The 20 foundation teams of the Russell Crowe Invitational.

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2001-02 Season Preview: Kiwi Conference

There's a lot of unknowns as we head into the inaugural season of the Russell Crowe Invitational. This whole thing is absolute bonkers, less than a year ago it wasn't even a thing and now we have 20 professional teams across Australia and New Zealand playing 168 game seasons.

Insanity.

So what can we expect from each team? Let's start with the NZ teams.



The Steamrollers have proven themselves to be the most aggressive in the buildup to this tournament in procuring talent. Two hitters and three pitchers end up in their respective top player lists. The Steamrollers have already encountered some success. Way back in January, a trial knockout tournament was held in Queenstown and won by the Steamrollers.

Their campaign will be spearheaded by Ciaran Mackay, the 34 year old Third Baseman is pulling in the biggest salary in the entire league at $22m a season.

They don't have to look far for their main competition. Just 90 minutes drive away is the Waikato River Cats, projected to pick up 102 wins.

Fans of the home run should keep an eye on the Taranaki Bulls. They're projected to hit 170 of them into the stands over a season -- the most of any team.

The Auckland Aces and Otago Thunderbolts round out our bunch of likely playoff contenders. They'll need to dig out something special if they want to bring home that prize though.

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2001-02 Season Preview: Kangaroo Conference


Across the ditch now.



No 100 win teams here as the Australians look set to be a tighter affair than their kiwi counterparts. In a surprise, the top three projected teams are all out of the Sydney/Melbourne bubble that was expected to dominate Australian baseball.

In fact, all the New South Wales teams are projected to fall under .500 while Geelong is the only Victoria team to be positioned in a playoff spot with a 85-83 record.

Instead, it's expected that the Canberra Power and Queensland Firebirds will be in the driving seat. The Power may have taken their name a bit too literally and have recruited the most aggressive hitting lineup in the competition.

One player eager to live a mark will be Zachariah Roneberg from the Adelaide Zips. He's 38 years old but as good as he's ever been. He's not going to get many chances to get his hands on a championship so believe us, he'll be gunning it for it this season.

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October 2001



5 October, 2001
Auckland gets the honour of the very first game of the Russell Crowe Invitational as the Auckland Aces take on the Otago Thunderbolts at Eden Park. Crowe was there to throw the first pitch and gave a rousing speech to the strong crowd.

There was an apparent mix-up of cue cards for Crowe's speech, at one point he simply switched into his well-known speech from Gladiator: "My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, Commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, loyal servant to the true emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next." and back into his planned speech without missing a beat.

The game itself? The game was runless until the tenth innings when Otago Left Fielder Domenic Vanrenen sent a ball into the stands for the win.

Elsewhere, the Northland Giants paid highly for their win over the Wellington Lions. Their star pitcher Kealoha Maasi, who won player of the match, confirmed the next day that he would need to sit out the season for elbow ligament reconstruction surgery. Turns out that Northland paid $6m for a solitary win.

31 October, 2000
Left Fielder Senri van Oosten, from the Wellington Lions became the first hitter to go for the cycle in the RCI, unfortunately -- while the rare statistic fairies were happy -- it wasn't enough to win their game against Bay of Plenty.

Over in Australia, Third Baseman Baden Velvick, from the Adelaide Zips went hitless against the Newcastle Ducks, ending a 21 game hit streak for him.

October Awards

Kiwi Hitter of the Month: Tye Jeffes (Taranaki, 2B) (.349 average with 5 home runs, 23 RBIs, and 16 runs scored)
Kiwi Pitcher of the Month: Randolph Alport (Waikato) (4-0 in 5 starts,43 K, 0.78 ERA)
Kiwi Rookie of the Month: Randolph Alport (Waikato)

Kangaroo Hitter of the Month: Domenic Redelius (Canberra, LF) (.404 average with 9 home runs, 28 RBIs, and 24 runs scored)
Kangaroo Pitcher of the Month: Jai Mcquade (Tasmania) (3-0, 32 innings pitched, 28 base hits, .231 batting average, 21 K, 8 walks, 3.09 ERA)
Kangaroo Rookie of the Month: Tye Lapthorne (Tasmania, RF) (.361 average with 11 doubles and 5 home runs)





Early days, but Queensland fans couldn't help but feel a bit of disappointment of their team's start compared to the pre-season hype.

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November 2001

16 November, 2001
The Cycle hits again, this time by Queensland Firebird's Centre Fielder Tye Geaner in a 5-3 win over the Illawarra Hawks.

23 November, 2001
Tasmania Tigers Right Fielder Tye Lapthorne saw his 27 hit streak end against the Illawarra Hawks as his team got annihilated 9-2.

Meanwhile, Canberra Power Catcher Yoo-ngan Jue smashed three home runs to help his side to a 12-1 victory over the Queensland Firebirds.

26 November, 2001
The Australia Secondary School League concludes with Sydney Boys High School taking the inaugural prize against Wirreanda Secondary School in a 5 game series.

29 November, 2001
The New Zealand High School League finishes up with Kings College taking the win in the final against Sacred Heart College. Kings College dominated the season with a 34-6 record but Sacred Heart took them right to game 7 of the national final before finally giving in to fate.

November Awards
Kiwi Batter of the Month: Ciaran Mackay (Bay of Plenty, 3B) (.310 batting average, 11 home runs, 22 RBIs, and 26 runs scored)
Kiwi Pitcher of the Month: Kazuhito van der Looij (Otago) (5 starts w/ 4-0 record, 1.71 ERA, striking out 31 over 31.2 innnings)
Kiwi Rookie of the Month: Ciaran Macleod (Northland, 3B) (.313 batting average, 5 doubles and 8 home runs. Scored 17 times and drove in 23 runs)

Kangaroo Batter of the Month: Willem Dunshea (Newcastle, 1B) (.385 batting average, 7 home runs, drove in 18 runs, scored 19 times w/ a .487 on-base percentage)
Kangaroo Pitcher of the Month: Domenic Heathershaw (Queensland) (5 starts w/ 3-0 record, 1.64 ERA, striking out 32 over 33 innings)
Kangaroo Rookie of the Month: Tye Lapthorne (Tasmania, RF) (.366 batting average, 5 home runs and 19 runs batted in -- this is his second straight Rookie of the Month award)





As we finish month number two, the favourites take a slim lead on both conferences.

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The 2001 Draft

Here we'll cover the top three picks for each country. No foreigners are allowed on teams, and that extends to New Zealanders playing for Australians and vice versa. So while, it's one draft -- it's really two simultaneous drafts (dual citizens provide an exception to this).

Top Australian Picks

#1 Tye Si-Ma (Newcastle)
Born in Adelaide, and currently playing for the University of Sydney. Tye Si-Ma is an Outfielder, he weighs in at 185lbs and is 6'1". Scouts pick him to become one of the top base stealers, provide above-average defense in the outfield, and produce a good average with his clean stroke.

While the University of Sydney had a below .500 season, Tye Si-ma is a definite star. Currently coming in #2 on WAR in the Australian University Classic.

#2 Rex "Hypnotist" Gordam (Sydney City)
Rex's parents were relieved once they realised this baseball thing was going to pay off as they struggled to find out the average salary of what hypnotists made.

Born in Sydney, and currently playing for the Australian National University. Rex Gordam is a Pitcher, he weighs in at 210lbs and is 6'2". Gordram is widely picked to be an All-Star pitcher in the future. He's leading in Pitcher WAR in the Australian University Classic.

#3 Vaughan Whittick (Melbourne)
Born in Sydney, and currently attending St Josephs College. Whittick is the first High School pick from Australia. He is a pitcher, weighing in at 200lbs and coming in at 6'3". Scouts see a lot of talent in him, it certainly can't be seen in his stat line with a 21.5 ERA in high school.

Scouts put his level at a top reliever/future closer. He has two pitches -- a cutter and a slider that can become quality in time.

Top New Zealand Picks

#1 Pelanekelina Ahotaein (Auckland)
Born in Nelson, and currently attending St Peters College. He is a pitcher, weighing in at 200lbs, and coming in at 6'5". Scouts consider him "lanky". The boy has some talent, with a five-pitch repertoire up his sleeve.

Ahotaein is asking $2.3m from Auckland as a signing bonus.

#2 Motuha Perelini (Waikato)
A local boy, born in Morrinsville and currently attending Massey University. Perelini is a pitcher, weighing in at 200lbs and coming in at 6'4". Scouts think he can develop to top of the rotation material based on the strength of his curveball and fastball.

#3 Edha Lalji (Bay of Plenty)
Born in Christchurch, and attending Southland Boy's High School. Lalji is yet another pitcher, weighing in at 180lbs and coming in at 6'2". Scouts are excited for his fringe sinker and slider that may get him a starting role one of these days.

Until then, he's asking for a $2.75m bonus from Bay of Plenty.

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December 2001

1 December, 2001
The cycles are coming fast and hard in this league, as Kian Maclean (Taranaki Bulls, LF) picked one up in a 8-3 win over the Northland Giants. It was mainly on the strength of this game that he was named as Player of the Week.

That's the third cycle we've had.

7 December, 2001
The Tasman Sunbirds and Tasmania Tigers acknowledge that they've named themselves confusingly. That's not going to change but they did want to celebrate their similar names with a shiny prize: The Abel Tasman Shield. It'll be up for grabs each year and awarded to whichever team comes out top after the 6 games they'll play against each other over the course of the season. If the teams tie, whoever holds the Shield will retain it.

8 December, 2001
The second game between Tasman and Tasmania exploded as a fight broke out between two players, they both got ejected and suspended for three games each.

It was not released what the fight was about but rumours speculated that ice cream was involved.

December Awards
Kiwi Batter of the Month: Willem Ladds (Waikato, 1B), justifying his $21.5m contract. In 18 games, Ladds hit .413 with 3 home runs, 15 RBIs and scored 17 runs as Waikato picked up a 18-8 record.
Kiwi Pitcher of the Month: Randolph D'antonio (Otago), the second month in a row where an Otago pitcher won this award. He went 4-0 from 6 starts, allowed 28 hits in 38.2 innings, struck out 50 and had a 1.63 ERA. He has a slim lead in Pitcher WAR this year.
Kiwi Rookie of the Month: Ciaran Macleod (Northland, 3B), that's the second month in the row for this award for Macleod. He hit .210 with 8 doubles, no triples, and 2 home runs. He scored 12 times and drove in 13 runs.

Kangaroo Batter of the Month: Willem Woodger (Sydney City, RF), the experienced outfielder batted .304, with 6 home runs, 13 RBIs, and 28 runs scored over the month.
Kangaroo Pitcher of the Month: Zachariah Eveson (Illawarra) the 25 year old has been tapped for this award this month. In 41.2 innings of work, he limited opposing batters to 28 base hits and .185 batting average. He notched 34 strikeouts, issued 7 walks and had a 2.59 ERA.
Kangaroo Rookie of the Month: Tye Lapthorne (Tasmania, RF), Lapthorne is looking to sweep this award as he picks up his third award on the trot. He's an easy pick, he's got the second highest batter WAR in the entire competition after all. I think he's got a lock on this award. In December, he hit .368 average with 39 hits, 3 home runs and 16 RBIs.





The Bay of Plenty Steamrollers hold onto their lead in New Zealand. Meanwhile the Adelaide Zips, on the strength of a 17-9 record in December take the lead in Australia as Canberra rack up a disappointing 11-15.

[Izz]

Choice bro!

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The 2001-02 All Star Game

The Tasman Sunbirds are the first host of the All Star Game. So welcome to sunny Nelson on the tip of the South Island.



Baseball celebrated the New Year in style as Nelson turned into a festival for the All-Star game. The home team, the Kiwi All-Stars certainly turned it on for their fans as they slammed the Aussies for a 12-0 lead by the 6th innings. The Kangaroo All-Stars fought back with 6 runs in the 7th innings but it was too little, too late. Otago Outfielder Rex Wellby wins MVP.





But, we're not quite back to the regular season yet, all the players head down south for the Queenstown Classic. A quickfire knockout competition.

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2002 Queenstown Classic

Welcome to Queenstown!



What's better than playing baseball with the backdrop of a mountain range that's literally called the Remarkables?

To continue the festivities of the All Star break, all 20 teams head to Queenstown for a rapidfire knockout competition before getting back to business.

The competition is randomly seeded so can offer up some cruel early matches as top teams knock each other out. The 39-36 Tasmania Tigers would have hoped to have stayed on longer than one round but got matched up with the 47-28 Bay of Plenty Steamrollers.

Meanwhile with less of an excuse, the 43-32 Otago Thunderbolts , the pseudo home team, was knocked out in the first round by the 33-42 Sydney City Sharks.

The two conference leaders met each other in the Quarter Finals, the Steamrollers and Zips fought out a tough game but the Steamrollers moved on 2-0.

As the competition wore on, we were left with three of the top performers from the season so far: the Canberra Power, the Auckland Aces, and the Bay of Plenty Steamrollers. Rounding out the Final Four was the Newcastle Ducks.

The Power annihilated the Ducks 7-1 on the back on two home runs from their superstar outfielder Domenic Redelius. Meanwhile, the Auckland Aces took out the Bay of Plenty Steamrollers 3-1 to become the other finalist.

The final was a tight back-and-forth affair as the Aces and Power took turns to hold the lead. They went into the ninth innings tied up at 4-all but with two outs on the board, Canberra Shortstop Jai Collingridge sent a walk-off home run into the crowd to give the Power the prize. A brilliant finale to a very successful tournament.



This isn't the complete tournament (OOTP is having trouble showing all of it) but the Quarter-Finals onwards.

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January 2002

26 January, 2002


Joo-Ngan Jue has had an outstanding season so far, including an apperance in the All-Star game, he hit 3 home runs back in a game back in November, and less than two weeks ago was part of the team that won the Queenstown Classic. The three game suspension leaves a bit of a black mark against his name.

Stat Watch

50 Home Runs? Bay of Plenty 3B Ciaran MacKay has been electric with his home run production this season with 30 to his name. He's currently projected to get 56.

150 RBIs? Bay of Plenty 3B Ciaran MacKay is also on track here. He's currently on 83 RBIs and projected to get 155.

Batting Triple Crown? Domenic Redelius is on track to win the Triple Crown for the Australian conference. The Canberra Left Fielder is currently projected to average .378, hit 43 home runs, and bat in 146 runs.

20 Wins? Auckland's Rex Uridge currently has a 13-2 record and our experts are currently predicting a 24-4 record to finish it off. There are plenty of others gunning for that 20 wins though. Rex Courcha (Taranaki), Domenic Mackay (Auckland), and Randolph Vankrimpen (Bay of Plenty) are all projected to finish with 19.

January Award Winners
Kiwi Batter of the Month: Rhys Macleod (Canterbury, RF), snubbed for All-Star honours -- Macleod may have taken that a bit too personally as he smashed out a .350 average with 5 home runs, 16 RBIs, and 13 runs scored.
Kiwi Pitcher of the Month: Seb Larnach (Tasman), this rookie is having a fantastic year. He's made the All-Star game and now's been named the best pitcher in New Zealand. He went 3-0 over 3 starts, with 0.87 ERA, striking out 19 over 20.2 innings.
Kiwi Rookie of the Month: Seb Larnach (Tasman)

Kangaroo Batter of the Month: Domenic Redelius (Canberra, LF), a vital member of the Power picks up his second batter of the month award. For January, he averaged .393, 5 home runs, 21 RBIs, and 13 runs scored.
Kangaroo Pitcher of the Month: Domenic Geaner (Illawarra), the 30 year old picked up a 3-0 record over 3 starts. With a 0.44 ERA over 20.1 innings and striking out 18.
Kangaroo Rookie of the Month: Tye Geaner (CF, Queensland), Domenic's brother? I'm going to say yes. Geaner broke Tye Lapthorne's hold on this title with a .323 batting average, 21 hits, 4 home runs, and 13 RBIs.





Bay of Plenty and Adelaide consolidate their hold on the number 1 slot. A tight battle is beginning to form around from the remaining playoff spots though. 7 games may separate 1st and 2nd in New Zealand, but only 5 games separate 2nd from 7th. It's a similar outlook in Australia.

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February 2002

February 1, 2002


February 3, 2002
The Canberra Power's winning season was nearly put in jeopardy when their MVP candidate Domenic Redelius was struck by a pitch and put under a concussion cloud. Luckily, he came out clean on his tests.

February 27, 2002

First no-hitter!

February 28, 2002

It was a 14 innings epic in Napier. To cap off a stellar performance from Macdonald, it was him who hit in the final runner for Hawke's Bay to take the win.

Stat Watch

50 Home Runs? Ciaran Mackay (Bay of Plenty) falls off the pace as he only picks up 4 home runs in February dropping his projected Home Run total to 50. He's still scrapping it but barely.

150 RBIs? Mackay's disappointing February means he is now projected to get 143 RBIs.

Batting Triple Crown? Domenic Redelius (Canberra) has fallen behind in the RBIs in Australia as Bendigo's Willem Robilliard has a stellar February.

20 Wins? The two Rex's are still in for this. Rex Courcha (Taranaki) and Rex Uridge (Auckland) are both projected to get 21 wins. Randolph Vankrimpen is also in the hunt with 19 projected wins.

February Award Winners
Kiwi Batter of the Month: Tye Jeffes (Taranaki, 2B) batted .315, hit 10 home runs, drove in 20 runs, scored 25 times and compiled a .436 on-base percentage. This contribution helped propel Taranaki to a 13-11 record, their best month since October.
Kiwi Pitcher of the Month: En-guo Trentelman (Auckland) was 4-1 from starts with a 1.62 ERA. He had 27 strikeouts from 33.1 innings. He must have sealed the deal with his no-hitter on the 27th against the Queensland Firebirds.
Kiwi Rookie of the Month: Callum Macdonald (Wellington, SS) put up a .304 batting average, 1 home run, 5 RBIs, and 10 runs scored.

Kangaroo Batter of the Month: Willem Robilliard (Bendigo, 3B), the Gold Rush are having a lackluster season so far but that didn't stop their third baseman was having a stellar month with the bat. He averaged .379 with a .440 on-base percentage, totaled 36 hits in 95 at-bats, 6 home runs, 21 RBIs, and scored 19 runs.
Kangaroo Pitcher of the Month: Seb Hanscombe (Geelong) the 6'6"/240lbs pitcher put in a huge effort for the Green Sox over February. He struck out 35 in 30.1 innings, logged an ERA of 0.59 and allowed a batting average of .151
Kangaroo Rookie of the Month: Tye Lapthorne (Tasmania, RF) picks up his fourth Rookie of the Month award. The All-Star hit .354 with 6 doubles and 4 home runs.





Bay of Plenty and Adelaide continue to hold onto their conferences. The Canterbury Red Knights had a 17-7 record over February in the New Zealand conference to push them into second place.

In Australia, the Sydney City Sharks went 16-8 to lift them from 9th to 3rd over the course of the month.

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March 2002

25 March, 2002
Los Angeles. It's the day after the Academy Awards. Russell Crowe sits in a dark room. A non-famous enters.

Non-Famous Person: Hey.......... Russ........ Any chance of getting you out of this dark room today?
Russell Crowe: Darkness is my only friend today.
Non-Famous Person: Okay. I know you were disappointed to not win but winning it two years in a row is pretty much unheard of.
Russell Crowe: Tom Hanks did it.
Non-Famous Person: Well, yes but...
Russell Crowe: What? You think Tom Hanks is better than me?
Non-Famous Person: I'm not saying that.
Russell Crowe: Is it possible I'm not the greatest actor that's ever existed?
Non-Famous Person: Well...
Russell Crowe: Ron Howard won two Oscars last night. Ron Howard has more Oscars than me. Can you believe that? Ron Howard looks like a dirty condom and has more Oscars than me.
Non-Famous Person: Don't make me choose between you and Ron Howard. You know where my heart truly lies.
Russell Crowe: Fine, I just have some introspection to go through. This is some big stuff.
Non-Famous Person: Don't you have a baseball competition named after you? In Austria or something? What's going on with that?
Russell Crowe: What are you on about?

29 March, 2002
The chances of the Waikato River Bandits took a hit as Baseball's second highest paid player 1B Willem Ladds announced that he had been diagnosed with concussion and was on doctor's orders to stand down for the rest of the season. Pundits don't think they've got what it takes to make the playoffs without Ladds.

30 March, 2002
The Tasmania Tigers will hold the Abel Tasman Shield this season. The Shield will be awarded to the winner of the matches between the Tigers and the Tasman Sunbirds. Back in December, the 3 game series was played out in Hobart with the Tigers taking a 2-1 lead. The return series in Nelson saw Tasmania win the first two games to confirm their victory.

Stat Watch
We've abandoned our watch on 150+ RBI and the batting triple crown.

50 Home Runs? Ciaran Mackay (Bay of Plenty) is currently projected at 49. He's at 41 with a month to go.

20 Wins? Rex Courcha (Taranaki) has slipped to a projection of 19 so might narrowly miss out.

March Award Winners

Kiwi Batter of the Month: Kian Maclean (Taranaki, LF) was unstoppable as the Bulls picked up a 16-11 record in March. In 27 games, he averaged .450 with 7 home runs, 23 RBIs, and scored 21 runs.
Kiwi Pitcher of the Month: Baden Woodger (Tasman) had a record of 4-1 with an ERA of 1.54. In 41 innings he struck out 53, surrendering 22 hits and 7 walks.
Kiwi Rookie of the Month: Randolph Stranaghan (Taranaki, C) hit .465 with 2 doubles, 3 home runs, 8 runs, and 7 RBIs.

Kangaroo Batter of the Month: Rex Dulihanty (Adelaide, CF) put together a solid body of work for Adelaide. He hit .311 with 5 home runs, 21 RBIs, and 25 runs scored.
Kangaroo Pitcher of the Month: Willem Colcott (Queensland) is the first closer to pick up this award. He's bounced back after being suspended for 7 games back in January. During March he collected 10 saves, 16 strikeouts in 14 innings, and held the opposition to a .125 average. He had a 0.00 ERA and put up a 3-0 record.
Kangaroo Rookie of the Month: Hui Phan (Melbourne, CF) hit .363 with 1 home run, 6 RBIs, and 13 runs during March.





For the second month in a row, a team in the Australian conference has risen from 9th to 3rd over a month just to show how close it is. After the exploits of the Sharks in February, the Firebirds went 20-7 in March and are now in a great position to challenge for a playoff spot. Finally living up to their preseason hype.

Looking at the other teams in Australia, the Adelaide Zips keep a tight hold on their number one slot with a 7 game lead over the second placed Canberra Power. The Zips have had the best record (42-24) of any team since the All-Star break and are looking good. They are only one win away from making their pre-season prediction.

The Canberra Power have a strong hold on that second spot with a 9 game lead over the Firebirds.

The final two playoff spots looks like it'll be a 6-way battle. Queensland, Newcastle, Sydney, Geelong, Illawarra, and Tasmania are all with striking distance.

In New Zealand, the Bay of Plenty continue their rampage and hold a 7 game lead over the rest of the pack. 5 teams are trying to grab the final 3 spots: Canterbury, Auckland, Taranaki, Waikato and Otago.

Canterbury are performing above expectations. They're only two wins away from hitting their pre-season prediction in wins! That 8 game losing streak is a bit concerning though.

[mrbucket]

2 April, 2002

30 days to go...

[mrbucket]

25 April, 2002

6 games to go in the regular season and this is how it stands.





In New Zealand, Auckland and Otago have nearly wrapped those final two spots. Both will be anchoring to grab that 3rd spot and avoid the Steamrollers in that first round.

Auckland will have three games against Canterbury and Northland to finish the season. Otago meanwhile have Wellington and Waikato to finish it off.

In Australia, Adelaide have put a 7-14 record in April so far and left themselves exposed to surrender that final spot after holding onto it for months. With a three game series against Canberra coming up, the Power have an amazing chance to take control in Australia.

Newcastle have pretty much bundled up that third spot while a battle is on for that fourth spot between Illawarra and Queensland. They have a three game that will go a long way to determining that outcome.

[mrbucket]

26 April, 2002





Both Auckland and Otago win their games, so they both stick to 90-73. If Auckland can keep this up against Canterbury then their second spot comes into play.



The Power's plan to usurp the Zips was foiled. Canberra will likely need to settle for second spot.



The Hawks fight off the Firebirds as they go for that fourth and final slot. A rampage in the first innings is enough to see Illawarra home here.

[mrbucket]

27 April, 2002





Auckland and Otago both lose so both go to 90-74.



The Zips win again and secure the Australian pennant! The Canberra Power are guaranteed second spot.



The Illawarra Hawks lose their closer, All-Star Jai dejong to injury right in the ninth innings. His replacement gets two home runs hit on him for the Firebirds to turn a 5-4 scoreline into a 6-5 win. The Firebirds keep their playoff hopes alive.

[mrbucket]

28 April, 2002





Auckland and Otago continue to mirror each other as they take their respective wins to go 91-74 each.The Thunderbolts had to take it to extra innings but got there in the end. For the final three games of the year, Auckland will take on Northland while Otago take on Waikato.

Canterbury will be taking on leader Bay of Plenty so there's a slim chance that the number two spot is in play.



The race is on for that final playoff spot in Australia! The Firebirds take out the Hawks 5-1 to get themselves both tied up at 80-85

Illawarra will take on leader the Adelaide Zips for their final 3 games and the Firebirds will take on the 3rd placed Newcastle Ducks.

This is where the standings look with three games to go in the regular season.