1993-1994 Australian Baseball League

The 1993-1994 season was the fifth in the Australian Baseball League, halfway through the loop's history. It featured several future major leaguers while Australian natives remained competitive.

The title was won by the Brisbane Bandits, who had finished third in a close three-team pennant race during the regular season. They beat the Perth Heat 2 games to 1 in the playoffs, ending a 18-game losing streak against Perth. Brisbane was scheduled to lose Dave Nilsson, their top hitter, to the Milwaukee Brewers spring training camp, but Milwaukee finally agreed to let Nilsson remain to finish the year. In game one of the finals, Andy Paul won a 5-1 victory over Pitcher of the Year Brad Cornett of the Sydney Blues to put Brisbane ahead, 1 game to 0 in the best of 3 championship. In game two, almost 14,000 fans came out. Leon Glenn went 4 for 4 with 9 total bases (2 doubles, 1 homer) and 3 RBI in the 10-9 win to pick up the playoff MVP award. Dave Nilsson's brother Gary Nilsson wound up with the victory as part of a brother battery.

Brisbane had been led by Glenn (.333, .600 SLG, 19 SB), Dave Nilsson (.362, .695 SLG, second in average) and batting titlist Homer Bush (.374, 19 SB). Paul (8-4, 2.74) was their ace. 2B Bush, OF Glenn and C Nilsson all were All-Star selections and Bush was the MVP.

For the first-place Sydney Blues, Cornett had gone 10-4 with a 2.45 ERA to lead in ERA while Brendan Kingman was the All-Star third baseman after smacking a league-leading 17 homers.

For second-place Perth, the All-Stars were SS Greg Jelks (.361, .669 SLG, third in average behind Bush and Dave Nilsson), OF Curtis Goodwin (.319), who set a league record with 32 stolen bases and DH Tony Adamson (.286, 15 HR), who also managed the team.

Other notable names (in retrospect) are long-time MLB reliever Jay Powell (8-4, 3.86 for Perth) and Nippon Ham Fighters closer Michael Nakamura (3-2, 3.90).

Standings

1. Sydney Blues, 35-19
2. Perth Heat, 36-20
3. Brisbane Bandits, 34-21
4. Adelaide Giants, 30-26
5. Melbourne Monarchs, 29-26
6. Waverley Reds, 22-31
7. Canberra Bushrangers, 17-38
8. East Coast Cougars, 15-37

Playoffs: Brisbane def. Perth, 2 games to 1. Sydney def. Adelaide, 2 games to 0. Brisbane def. Sydney, 2 games to 0.

Sources: 1995 Baseball Almanac, Flintoff and Dunn website