Simon Pole

Simon Pole

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 11", Weight 159 lb.

• Born February 10, 1973 in Glenelg, South Australia Australia

Biographical Information

Simon Pole was an Australian who was perhaps the top player in British baseball in the period he played there (1999-2008), starring for the London Warriors.

Pole played briefly in the Australian Baseball League, with a 4.82 ERA in 5 outings for the Adelaide Giants in 1994-1995 and 4 runs in 4 innings for the Hunter Eagles in 1996-1997.

He won a batting title his first year in Britain at .564, then followed up with a Triple Crown (.507, 7 HR, 43 RBI) the next. In 2001, he was named Britain's top two-way player and set a national record (for the 1995-2011 period) with 17 doubles. He also led the league with a 1.48 ERA and .87 WHIP. In 2002, he led the league in slugging (.711), homers (4), hits (39) and runs (30) as well as setting the ERA record (0.62) and was named the Most Valuable Hitter, Most Valuable Pitcher and Most Valuable Two-Way Player. In 2003, Pole led the loop with 33 hits and again was named the Most Valuable Two-Way Player.

Simon's last big year was 2005, when he led Britain in average (.571), OBP (.616), slugging (1.086), homers (8), RBI (42) and hits (40) to take his second Triple Crown. He won the Most Valuable Batter, Most Valuable Pitcher and Most Valuable Two-Way Player awards. With the British national team in the 2005 European Championship, he went 2 for 10 with a steal, 3 runs and a RBI (both hits coming against Russia) and tossed 3 1/3 shutout innings (H, 3 K, 2 BB) against the Italian national team.

From 1995-2011, he was among Britain's leaders in doubles (72, 1st), home runs (35, 1st by 4 over Roddi Liebenberg), average (.454, 2nd), OBP (3rd), slugging (2nd), OPS (2nd), hits (259, 1st by 7 over Alan Bloomfield), RBI (224, 1st), runs (220, 2nd to Bloomfield), ERA (2.11, 1st by .72) and WHIP (1.05, 1st).

In 2012, he was voted into the British Baseball Hall of Fame.

Sources

• British Hall of Fame
• Project Cobb bio
• British leaders
• Flintoff & Dunn Australian Baseball Almanac