From the Sydney Morning Herald

The diamond upon which the Australians prospected for gold could also yield serious currency.

Australia's baseballers, who fought Cuba in the final on Wednesday, took to the Helliniko playing field with a golden chance of securing their professional future by impressing international major league scouts.

Need proof?

Try the 24 American minor leaguers and college players who combined to win gold for the US against Cuba in the corresponding game four years ago.
Of those, 20 played in the major leagues - 15 called up the year after their Sydney triumph.
Houston pitcher Roy Oswalt, Minnesota first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz and Milwaukee pitcher Ben Sheets, all key members of Team USA, will earn a combined $12 million this season.

And from the silver medal-winning Cubans, pitcher Jose Contreras, who defected to the US in 2002, will earn $12.8 million from the Chicago White Sox this year.

So while the Australians toiled to secure the nation's first baseball medal, the consequences of the game could be far greater.

Japanese clubs have already sounded out Toronto-contracted third baseman Glenn Williams and outfielder Brett Roneberg, who is playing double-A in the Boston Red Sox organisation, after the pair's impressive performances at these Olympics.

"There's feelers out there from clubs who have been watching the Olympics, just from what Williams and Roneberg have done in the US and also here," said Australian coach Phil Dale, who is also a scout for the Atlanta Braves.
"This game puts them on a different platform to anything else.
Beating Japan twice (9-4 in the preliminaries and 1-0 in the semi-final), that's like beating their Dream Team.
That puts them on a lot of television sets in Japan and in the sights of clubs around the world.
There's probably another five or six guys on our team who could play in the (US) major leagues."

Before the gold medal match, Roneberg had a batting average of .344, had batted in seven runs and hit a team-leading three home runs in Australia's eight games.

Williams is batting .333 and defending superbly, highlighted by a pair of diving saves at third base during Australia's 11-6 win over Greece in the preliminaries.

Like most of the Australians toiling in the US minor leagues, Williams is well aware of the opportunities the gold medal game presents.
As a teenager, he signed a $1.2 million contract with the Atlanta Braves but a series of shoulder reconstructions derailed his promising career.
The Braves eventually released Williams after eight frustrating seasons and he joined the Toronto Blue Jays, where he plays a level below the majors.

"I'm sure the world is watching," Williams said.
"Hopefully it's a situation where if we win a medal, people will take notice of guys in our team.
We've got some guys who've been around a while and can play.
The same thing happened to Team USA in Sydney, they won a gold medal and the majority of those guys are in the big leagues now.
That's one thing [team captain] David [Nilsson] stressed to the guys here, some young professional guys.
The best way to leave an impression is to win."

While Ronenberg and Williams consider offers from Japan, pitcher Chris Oxspring is tipped to earn his first elevation to the San Diego Padres major league team, once rosters expand in September.
After all, scouts tend to look favourably on 2-0 win-loss records; especially when they come complete with earned run averages of 0.00.

But rookies aren't the only Australian players in line for major pay days.

Veteran catcher Nilsson, who stood down from the Milwaukee Brewers in 2000 and has yet to return to the big leagues, played part of this season with Atlanta's triple-A team.
With a .348 average before the Cuba match, the 34-year-old proved his lengthy break had not affected the timing and power that propelled him to the All Star game in 1999.