Q&A with the Irish baseball league coordinator

The Irish Baseball season is almost upon us. The league will be starting soon, meanwhile, in the engine room, the Irish baseball committee is working to set everything up for a hopefully successful season

How about we meet the new Adult League Coordinator, Brendan Scott, and ask him a few questions about the upcoming season?

Question: Brendan, you are relatively new to the league, how about a little brief bio?
Answer: This will be my 4th year playing with the Dublin Blacksox, on the A team I am the right fielder, and for the B team, I play several positions, but last year I focused more of my energies into pitching as I really wanted to learn and develop in that position. I missed last years tryouts for the National Team with an injury, but am hope full that I will be able to make next years try outs and make the squad, I have a lot of work to do though to get myself to the National Team caliber; but am confident I am still young enough (HA) and capable of upping my game.

Question: On to the league season itself. When will the 2009 season start?
Answer: The season will be officially starting on the 18th of April 2009, though there will be a Dublin teams Blitz (45min games Round Robin style) on the 4th April 2009

Question: How long will it run?
Answer: The season will be ending around the 2nd, or 3rd weekend in Aug 2009…with the playoffs starting beginning of September.

The beautiful O'Malley baseball field @ Corcaigh Park

Question: How many teams taking part this year?
Answer: There will be 5 A Teams 4 in Dublin 1 in Belfast; and 5 B teams 4 in Dublin and 1 in Cork

The 'A' teams
The Dublin Hurricanes
  • The Dublin Spartans
  • The Belfast Northstars
  • The Dublin Blacksox
  • The Greystones Mariners

Question: Will there be a playoff format or a league final or how will the season end?
Answer: There will be a playoff format at the end of the season, with the top four teams playing for the Title. Basically the top 2 teams play and the bottom 2 teams play; winner of bottom 2, plays loser of top 2 to go to the final (3rd place to loser); final 2 teams play best of 3 for Championship

Question: What kind of challenges did you face putting the schedule together?
Answer: The logistics of the A/B teams playing has proven to be a bit of a dilemma, especially with an A only team in Belfast and a B only team in Cork.

Question: Are there any extra tournaments on this year in Dublin/Ireland?
Answer: There will be in the first 2 weeks of July. A vintage team (plays 19th century rules) will be visiting the 1st week in July, will probably be playing just an exhibition game or 2. For the 2nd week in July it is still in the works but, an English team will be visiting possibly a 2nd team, with 2/3 Irish teams playing. We are hope full to get some of the older youths in the youth league involved in this somehow as well.

Question: What else is going on in Irish baseball in 2009?
Answer: This year we will be seeing more of an active approach on the youth side of the league; as the Euros are still 2 years away. This is great, as we can get some home grown talent better prepared and ready for the Euros.

There will also be a Presidents 9 team (selection of adult league players) possibly going to the states (Boston area) for a tournament, in early August.

Baseball Ireland - we do it wetter!


Links to note:

If you would like to get involved with Baseball Ireland at any level, Adult or Youth, or would like to support the game in Ireland, please refer to this link

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