New Zealand: Baseball between British traditions

Abstract

This book is an updated and expanded version of the first edition of Baseball without Borders. It examines the game’s history and current status in six more countries than its predecessor. There are new chapters about baseball in Finland, Israel, Mexico, New Zealand, South Africa, Venezuela, and the Australian state of Tasmania. Many of the original chapters have been significantly revised. Much smaller than Australia, New Zealand shares a similar Anglo influenced history, yet the two island nations have notably different cultures, including sporting traditions and preferences. In “New Zealand: Baseball between British Traditions,” historian Greg Ryan documents that baseball has been played in New Zealand since the 1880s. It has never, however, been widely popular. As in Australia, in New Zealand British games such as cricket and especially rugby were well established and incorporated into the local culture before baseball arrived. But this did not deter some Kiwis from embracing the game and establishing the Wellington Baseball Club in 1888. Over the next century, Ryan shows, baseball, always a minor sport, persisted in small pockets of Aotearoa (the Māori name for the country). For reasons that are unclear, softball took hold in the 1930s, and New Zealand has consistently done well in international softball competitions. Since the 1990s, partly due to “globalization and diversifying sport and leisure patterns,” some New Zealanders have become “more receptive to American and other non-British sports,” baseball among them. The establishment of Baseball New Zealand, the national governing body for the sport, is one example of this increased interest. So, too, is the fact that the national team’s world ranking has dramatically improved and several New Zealanders have played professionally in the U.S. Minor Leagues.