'FERRET' & 'BONNAS'

Nice to see a couple of Waverley's favourite sons working so hard on their baseball during our Wildcats' off season!

No folks, they are not honing their skills in the US big leagues with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Premiership star GLENN MASCOLL and popular absent star ADAM BONADDIO have hooked up to play with the Pirates in the Netherlands Baseball League.

Glenn made arrangements to join the Dutch team following our recent Premiership success then Adam found him while travelling around Europe and decided to join forces.

While we expect a rejuvenated Mascoll back to help Waverley to defend our Championship title this summer, word has it that we will have to wait another year for 'Bonnas' to get rid of his travel bug and re-join the Waverley team.

The WAVERLEY BASEBALL CLUB continued its tradition of producing a large representation of players selected for the various U12 National development teams. We are delighted to have another TEN future Wildcats stars involved this year.

We would like to congratulate all UNDER 12 boys that represented Waverley at the recent International Friendship Series played against teams from Japan , Gold Coast and South Australia . Three squads have now been formed from the weeks tournament.

2007 Touring team to Japan includes the following Waverley Players: 
Ben Aslett, Tommy Maxfield, Daniel Page, Aidan Slack

2007 Touring team to the Gold Coast: 
Lachland Dunn, Mitchell Lording, Fraser Ohlson

2007 Touring team to Adelaide : 
Daniel Beattie, Alexander Seremelis, Jason Vermeulen

Waverley President Ross Neilson (left) with the 2006/07 Division One CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP (Award shared with Blackburn)

Waverley co-coaches David White & Scott Dawes take the Division One Premiership Cup

First and foremost we were delighted to be formally recognised as winners of the two major TEAM awards with the CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP (shared with Blackburn) and the PREMIERSHIP CUP for Division One. 

Our own Club Champion ANDREW RUSSELL was a deserving recipient of the BATTING CHAMPION and HOME RUN KING Awards to cap a tremendously successful season for 'Rusty'.

Wildcats' pitcher RYAN FISHER was an obvious Grand Final MVP Award winner.

Waverley's TERINA STOKES also won the MVP Award for Women's Division One for the second straight year.

The Waverley Baseball Club will also take this opportunity to congratulate:

Our popular former player and assistant coach LEE HOGAN for winning the PITCHER'S AWARD after his first season as playing coach of the Blackburn club. Lee previously won this award when at Waverley and it also adds to his joint-MVP Award last season.

Victorian Aces Claxton Shield hero pitcher GREG WILTSHIRE on winning the Division One MVP Award for his lion-hearted performances with the Sunshine Club.

And all the other various award winners that we cannot detail here.

I think we share the views of most in Victorian baseball that Steve was a "breath of fresh air" for Victorian baseball and he demonstrated the rare ability to make things happen within short time frames. Among the popular achievements under his management was the introduction of the midweek twilight games at local venues that proved a tremendous success.

We certainly hope that his replacement follows the principles that Steve made his hallmark with the simple philosophy of listening to the important stakeholders in the game. Thanks again Steve!

Talk about "name dropping"...
Let's answer the obvious question for anyone who may not be familiar with those pictured above.
The crew-cut fellow at left needs no introduction, but who is that trying to "buddy up" with our Waverley star James Beresford?
Answer: Probably the No.1 pitcher in all of major league baseball at present - none other than the Minnesota Twins' 2006 CY YOUNG AWARD Winner
JOHAN SANTANA

Well Waverley faithful, is there no limit to how quickly our young prodigy James Beresford can make progress in the baseball world?

Just remember folks, this is the kid who first rounded the TEE BALL bases at Napier Park in a pram, before spending almost his entire Primary School years in our U12 Wildcats! He's also the lad that they nicknamed "foetus" when he started at the VIS and who represented the Victorian Aces aged 16... not to mention playing with the Australian senior national team aged 18 plus only a few days!

However he has now topped it all by making it up to the US major leagues before completing his rookie pre-season training! OK, hold the phone folks, we need to explain here that our 'Jimmy' has been training with the Minnesota Twins in Fort Myers, Florida and it just happened that the big league Twins were "in town" at St. Petersburg in Florida so the new boys got to pay the big leaguers a visit. 

No folks, not even James Beresford can by-pass the rigours of starting his professional baseball life in the Rookie Leagues and, we must remember that VERY FEW players of even the most special talent get an opportunity to play in the majors before the age of 22. 

Of course we will all wish 'Jimbo' the very best for a rapid rise up the professional ranks and for him to enjoy wherever the journey goes!

We all need to remember that there is MUCH more to making baseball's big leagues than having the desire and natural talent. Injuries, opportunities and plain old luck often play a part in how far you go. 

We know that our boys have the determination, work ethic and ability to give it a good shot!