Monday 4th July 2005

The 2005 Major League Baseball Academy Progran (MLBAAP) has officially commenced

The Academy, which was scheduled to start on Thursday the 30th June was postponed for over 24 hours due to torential rain and flooding on Queensland's Gold Coast
Many interstate players were unable to fly into Coolangatta airport on Thursday as the airport runway was flooded

The seven week player development camp will be held at the Radisson Resort in Palm Meadows on Queensland's Gold Coast

Over 80 players will endure intensive baseball training 6 days a week under the direction of some of the best coaches Australia has to offer, including the 2004 Olympic Silver medal coaching staff (Jon Deeble, Tony Harris and Phil Dale) and special guest coaches including ex-Major League players Luke Prokopec and Mark Hutton

Speaking of coaches, the 2005 MLBAAP will see Major League legend and Hall of Famer ROD CAREW grace the fields as an extremely special guest coach
Rod, who has a MLB career spanning over 18 years, and a career batting record of over 3000 hits in the Major Leagues, retired in 1985 as one of the greatest batters the World has ever seen, holding seven batting titles under his belt

We would like to take this opportunity to welcome Rod and his wife Rhonda to the MLBAAP and thank them for sharing their extensive baseball knowledge with us

The 2005 MLBAAP will operate under the watchful eye of Neil Barrowcliff, Operations Manger for the Claxton Shield and the AA National Team
The ABF has every confidence that the 2005 MLBAAP will run as smooth as clock work with Neil at the reins

Good luck to all participants, Managment and coaching staff
We hope you achieve all you set out to achieve