Tony Adamson

Anthony Adamson

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 6' 1", Weight 198 lb.

• Born February 28, 1963 in Perth, Western Australia Australia

Biographical Information

Tony Adamson was a power-hitting Australian outfielder who once held the Australian Baseball League home run record. He led the ABL in RBI three times, slugging twice and home runs twice. His son Corey Adamson played for the Australian national team as well.

Adamson played for Australia in the 1988 Olympics and won the Helms Award in the 1988 Claxton Shield. In the 1989-1990 ABL, Tony hit .313/.361/.528 for his hometown Perth Heat and was chosen as the DH on the All-Star team for the league's inaugural season. The next year, Tony batted .379/.449/.829 with 17 home runs, 42 runs and 54 RBI in 41 games. He was relegated to second-team All-Star at 1B because of the presence of John Jaha. While helping Perth to the title, Adamson led the league in home runs, RBI (8 ahead of runner-up Jaha), slugging (26 points ahead of Jaha) and extra-base hits (28). He scored 42 runs, second most, trailing Jaha.

Adamson produced at a .331/.400/.678 rate for Perth in 1991-1992. He again paced the ABL in home runs (12), slugging (63 points ahead of #2 Paul Gorman) and RBI (43, one ahead of Melvin Wearing). He was again the second-team All-Star first bagger. In 1992-1993, Tony hit .303/.368/.587 with 42 RBI in 45 games. He was a first-team All-Star at 1B, ahead of Jon Deeble. Adamson ranked among the leaders in slugging (third behind Greg Jelks and Kevin Jordan), home runs (11, one behind leader Jelks), RBI (leading the league) and extra-base hits (22, third). He played for the Australian national team in the 1993 Asian Championship.

Adamson continued his run in the 1993-1994 ABL, batting .286/.325/.556 with 52 RBI in 56 games. He led the league in RBI, tied Jay Kirkpatrick for third in home runs, two behind leader Brendan Kingman. That year, Adamson also assumed the managerial reigns for Perth. In 1994-1995, the 31-year-old slugger hit .304/.363/.516 while managing his team to the finals, where they lost.

Adamson retired as the ABL career home run king and held that spot for two years after he had hung up his spikes at a young age. Adamson ranked 6th in ABL history in average (.316), 6th in RBI (252; one of only two players to top 200 RBI in under 1,000 AB in the ABL), tied for 7th in home runs (71, even with Adam Burton) and 4th in slugging (.606, trailing only Dave Nilsson, Jelks and Burton, two of whom played in the majors and the third of whom played in the minors).

In 2005, he was inducted into the Baseball Australia Hall of Fame as part of the initial class.

Source: Flintoff & Dunn Australian Baseball Almanac