Australian Baseball League

The Australian Baseball League, usually shortened to the ABL, is the professional baseball league of Australia. It was relaunched in 2010 after an earlier national league of the same name closed in 2000, and although it shares the Claxton Shield trophy with that first league and with older interstate tournaments, it is treated as a separate competition. The league was announced at a joint press conference of the national federation, Major League Baseball and the federal government in July 2009, and its first season ran in 2010 and 2011 with six teams in Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney. Its season is played from November to February, which is summer in Australia, so it counts as one of baseball's winter leagues and is often used by North American clubs to send minor league prospects for extra playing time. The league itself owns every franchise and pays all players on a tiered scale, a structure meant to keep the clubs financially level. Baseball Australia, formerly the Australian Baseball Federation, governs the sport and owns the league, and Major League Baseball gave up its original majority share after the 2015 to 2016 season. An All-Star Game was added in the second season, and the first postseasons used a Page playoff system.