our great sporting moments remembered - Melbourne Cricket Club

CLUB NEWSHARMAN CALLED UPTO THE BIG TIMEYou heard it here first, folks. As we predicted in our last time.” Harman is the 26th Australian to have made it onto anedition in March, MCC Baseball Section’s Brad Harman active major league roster, and the second graduate of thehad his first taste of the US Major League when he made his Australian Academy program established in 2001 to groom thedebut in late-April.country’s top baseball prospects.The 22-year-old infielder was called up to Philadelphia’s After debuting as a pinch hitter25-man roster to replace the injured Jimmy Rollins. From April on April 22, Harman celebrated22 to May 8, he played six games against the San Francisco Anzac Day in style againstGiants, Arizona Diamondbacks, Pittsburgh Pirates andPittsburgh.Colorado Rockies, before returning to the Double-A League He landed a two-base hit toteam Reading on May 10.left-centre field that earntBrad was as surprised as anybody to get the call up.an RBI.He had finished an afternoon game against the Norwich He was alsoDefenders in Connecticut when he found out he was going to instrumental in thethe majors.Phillies’ 6-5 win. NowFrom there, it was a flight to Philadelphia and an impressive he must wait untilfirst walk up to Citizens Bank Park.another opportunity“I walked up to the stadium to have a look at the field,” Brad presents itself to grab ittold a US baseball website before his debut. “It was an exciting with both hands.JUNIOR BASEBALLERS STAROn the verge of celebrating its 120th anniversary, the MCCBaseball Section took out the Under 16 StateChampionship in March.Boasting four Victorian players and one Victorian Provincialplayer, the young Demons went through the season undefeatedand defeated Waverley 4-3 at Cheltenham to become Statechampions. It is arguably the best junior team in the club’s119-year history.The win – only the fourth state championship the team’shistory – saw coach Greg Hondromatidis become MCC’smost successful junior baseball coach and the first to win twoState championships.Many of the boys he coached to an Under 14 StateChampionship two years ago are now under 16 champions.Starting pitcher Campbell Wiggins was named most valuableplayer of the state final.During the 2007/08 season, four of MCC’s under 16 playerswere selected to play for Victoria – Wiggins, Tristan Field, AlexHondromatidis and Justin Gourlay. A fifth player, Brad Dicker,was selected for the Victorian Provincial team and also hit thewinning runs for MCC in the grand final, with a double thatbrought in three runners before stealing home himself.There’s no doubt the MCC’s junior baseballers are anexciting bunch and we’ll be hearing a lot about them in theyears ahead.MCC treasurer David Crawford (left) was called on forpresentation duties at the Bowls Section’s annual dinner onMay 8. The Most Improved Player award went to Ian Storey,who played in the premiership side in Division 2. Ian is the sonof the former chairman Rob Storey.16 MCC NEWSJULY 2008