Obviously I am no scientist. The folks who have read my threads or other tid-bits on this site, probably consider me some other choice words. I’m cool with that. I consider myself the guy that is rolling some dice in a back alley in urban America, making deals, breaking deals and throwing some ideas out there that probably won’t stick. I still try and one of these days they might stick… Ha, Ha!

Evolution – If you are a human being who believes in evolution, it is probably thought about in terms of a 100,000 – Millions of years.

It doesn’t seem like we talk about it in a year to year, decade to decade, millennium to millennium kind of way and when it comes to Australian baseball players – maybe we should.

What I am about to write is not about superiority or inferiority on a human level, but on a baseball level – please take note of that.

Baseball is an American Sport which borrowed some ideas from somewhat similar sports in the United Kingdom and beyond. America made it their own, ran with it, made it better and created the best sporting contest in the history of the world.

Baseball has reached out to other countries – far and wide and Australia is one of them that has sort of picked up the game.

Baseball in Australia is not a tradition as it is here in the States. I have no percentage on Australians playing baseball, but it is probably comparable to Americans playing Cricket or maybe a better comparison is Rugby.

I would imagine that the baseball gene is not yet imbedded in the muscle memory, coordination, and physical instinct of the baseball playing Australian. It took many generations of Americans to make this game what it is today (1860’s-2010’s). Australia is roughly 25 years into it.

Repetition, physical ability and love for the game are not only passed onto the next generation by word of mouth, but also by the ability to reproduce and implant their genetic mark, a mark that contains the imprint of baseball.

So far in Australia’s brief history with baseball, I am assuming that Dave Nilsson (position player) and Grant Balfour (pitcher) are the best players to come out of this country.

Although many are disappointed with Liam Hendriks and his performance thus far, he is genetically new to baseball and is one of the few Australians who has made it to the MLB level. Maybe he will have success, maybe not, but he will be one of the men who has an opportunity to reproduce, strengthen and further the Australian Baseball movement and evolution.

One day there will be an impact Australian Baseball Player!!!

This is an interesting take on the situation, Mr. Lounge. But how do you explain Spanish basketball players? Mutations?

Nice curve ball Glunn. I know a little bit about basketball, but I am no afiicionado. The Euros took quite an interest to that sport in the last 40 years and their talent ranks have been growing.

The Spanish and former Eastern block seem to produce a fair amount of NBA talent. The Euros have not been subjected to, or do not like baseball. As of now it's a western hemisphere and Far East thing, Australian Basketball = A couple of high profile WNBA players and former T-Wolf Luc Longley.

The Twins have a minor league youngster from Germany - Max Kepler, the Mariners's have the Italian Alex Liddi, and the Netherlands have a few players, but they probably were born and grew up on the Caribbean Islands that are controlled and property of the Netherlands.

The Land Down Under has no such things... I think?

If you are a human being [i am] who believes in evolution... [i'm not, but I will limit my comment to areas where I would agree with those who do]

Repetition, physical ability and love for the game are not only passed onto the next generation by word of mouth, but also by the ability to reproduce and implant their genetic mark, a mark that contains the imprint of baseball.

Acquired characteristics such as baseball skills are not passed along genetically. (However, apparently Lamarckism is making a bit of a comeback, although for now it's tentative/questionable (at best) and limited to starvation situations and certain experiments with single-cell life forms.)

I would say that the US has better players than Australia because there are more people who play and there are far more opportunities to play against high-level competition. The coaching is better, or, rather, better coaching is available if you look for it.

My son is a much better athlete than I ever was, but I was a better baseball player. When he was nine we moved to Belgium and then to Germany, so he didn't see decent competion until he was a junior in high school. There is no substitute for repetions and good competition.