Thursday 8th November 2007
Australias baseball elite
are hungry for Olympic Gold after being defeated by Cuba in the
Gold Medal match at the 2004 Athens Games
To prepare for their Beijing assault, a squad of 24, which includes
seven Olympic Silver Medallists, five US Major League players
and 22 overseas professionals, are taking on the worlds
best at the 37th Baseball World Cup in Taiwan this November (6
18)
Jon Deeble, Australias Head Coach, is confident that his
team has what it takes to overcome the field of 16 nations to
secure the World Cup crown
Weve beaten Japanese sides that have $200 million
payrolls, and gone toe-to-toe with the US and the Cubans, who
are always the benchmark on the international stage
We know we can win, but we also know well have to be at
our absolute best to do it, he said
The Baseball World Cup is not an Olympic qualifying event but
it is a valuable training opportunity for the team
It's really good preparation for us (Australian side) to
play some games together and get some experience playing international
baseball, which is a lot different to professional baseball that
a lot of the guys (in the team) play said Glenn William,
third base player and Major League star
The Aussies will have a tough draw - they will face Korea, Venezuela,
Canada, The Netherlands, Germany and Olympic Gold Medalists Cuba,
who have won a staggering 25 World Cup campaigns
To gain a Beijing berth, Australia must place in the top three
at Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Taiwan, March 7
14, 2008
Performing well in Beijing is extremely important for the Australian
side because baseball will no longer be on the Olympic Games sports
program after the Beijing 2008 Games
Im lucky,
this is my third Olympics and I still get chills now and then
when I think about the Gold Medal game even though we lost
said outfielder Brett Roneberg
Words cant describe it and I get to look back on it
now and then with photos and videos and DVDs and its just
something that I know we can do and hopefully we can do it again
in Beijing he added