Redcliffe Baseball club was founded as a senior club in 1948 by an American ex-serviceman named Chuck Carroll and was later named the Redcliffe Whitesox. Juniors used to play at Redcliffe Police Citizens Youth Club then went elsewhere if they wanted to go on with their Baseball careers. In 1991 the PCYC was not going to be able to support Junior baseball anymore and as the Redcliffe Baseball Club desired to have junior feeder teams to support them, they decided to join forces with the PCYC Juniors at Frawley Fields in Silcock Street. To achieve this the committee at the time thought it best to re-brand Baseball on the peninsular and move forward with a new name and image. So after months of hard work it was put to a vote and on 16 December 1991 it was decided that they would re-name themselves as the Peninsula Padres Baseball Club Incorporated – based on the San Diego Padres. The people present at this historical point were Jason Pascoe, Brett Bates, Darryl Bates, Christa-belle Bates, Scott Mellowes, Dale Leeding, Andy Milosevich, Steven Rowe, Margaret Haworth, Gary Kear, Loraine Kear, Ben Kear, and Robert Harrington. On 29/4/1992 the clubs incorporation had been approved by the Justice department and so began our journey to 25 seasons of Baseball.
The following contains some highlights for our 25 seasons
1992-1993 Foundation Year
Foundation year was a year of many firsts for our club including, First Junior recruitment drive, First year in the Major’s format and our First Major’s Premiership Title. 1992-1993 saw a brand new Uniform complete with our own Peninsular Padres Logo which featured both on our Caps and Sleeves of our over-shirts. With the recruitment drive deemed a success, Peninsular Padres fielded 3 Senior teams and 5 Junior teams, (ranging from U10’s to U18’s). From the 3 Senior teams our top team went on to become Premiers and we also had 1 team reach the semi-finals. Although our juniors did not come away with a premiership they all acquitted themselves well with the U18’s and U12’s finishing Minor Premiers.
1993-1994
The season saw Peninsular Padres grow in members to 50 Senior players and 80 Junior players, as we built on our foundation year fielding 4 Senior teams and 7 Junior teams. It was the first time we as a club entered 3 teams into the Major League Roster, with our Major A’s finishing just out of finals contention, there was better news for our B’s and C’s both finishing in the top 4. Highlight for our senior teams was in the Minor League with our 4th team, under the guidance of coach Bruce Harle, walked away with the Premiership. Most of our Junior sides finished just out of finals reach, however both our U18’s and U14’s div2 both made top 4 position, but unfortunately could not process pat the semi-finals.
1994-1995
The Peninsular Padres were starting to grow in reputation and so it was decided to appoint its first ever Club Coach Geoff Wade. Membership stayed roughly the same and we again fielded 4 Senior teams and 7 Junior teams. It seemed it was going to be a repeat of the previous year with our Major A’s just outside a top 4 position while our B’s and C’s again finished within the top 4. However, history could not quite repeat itself with our Minor A’s just losing their defence of the title finishing 2nd. Our U18’s under the guidance of Geoff Wade returned to good form being Minor Premiers but just missed converting it to a Premiership in the Grand final. Our only other junior side to make the top 4 was the U14’s Div 1 with coach Brett Jull at the helm making it to the Grand Final as well. With our club representing well in Regional baseball over the past few seasons, 94-95 saw our first ever Queensland Rep player step up in Shane Greer.
1995-1996 Last Season at Frawley Fields
Club Playing membership grew to around 150 which enabled us to field 4 Senior teams and 8 Junior teams. The season saw only our Major C Senior team making the top 4 but saw our Junior sides step up with 3 teams out of the 8 making Grand Finals (U18’s U16 Div 1, U14 Div 2 RED).
1996-1997 Year of the Showgrounds
This season saw the club grow even more, thanks to the clubs first ever school-based recruitment drive. With this growth came the need for a New playing field and so began our first of many seasons at the Redcliffe Showgrounds. It was also decided that with this many Juniors playing we should appoint our first ever Junior Coaching Co-Ordinator. This position was gladly taken up by Peter Marriot. For the first time ever the Club fielded 5 Senior teams and 9 Junior teams including our first ever T-Ball Team. The season saw its best ever results at a senior level with Major B and C as well as Minor B (Jurassic) teams all taking premiership titles while our other 2 teams finished just out of finals contention. For our new look Juniors a premiership still eluded us with only the U16’s Div 1, Div 2 and U12’s making the top 4 and only the U16’s Div 1 making it to the grand final play-off.
1997-1998
An increase again in our player base saw the Club again field 5 Senior teams and 10 Junior teams this time including 2 tee-ball teams. Although we could not repeat last season’s efforts in our senior teams, our Minor A team under coach Jimmy McKenzie walked away with a premiership win. Two other senior teams made it into top 4 positions they were Minor B’s under coach K1 (Keith Land) and Major C’s under coach K2 (Keith Sharpe). With a Junior title still out of reach for the club our U18’s Div 1 managed to finish Minor Premiers, also finishing in top 4 positions were the U18’s Div 2 and U16’s Div 1 teams.
1998-1999 Last Call for The Pin Stripe Uniform
98-99 Season would see the last games played in the inaugural Red and white striped Padres colours. It also saw the Club again field 5 Senior teams and 9 Junior teams. Our Major A, B and C teams unfortunately didn’t make the top 4 in their competitions, but the talk of the club was our Minor Grades with, for the first time ever, our Minor A’s again under coach Jimmy McKenzie going back to back Premierships. Not to be out done was the Minor B grade (Jurassic) team, who although just missed out last season to defend their title bounced back this year and reclaimed the Premiership title under coach Don Davidson. At last 98 – 99 would be the season to break the drought of a Junior Premiership with Padres U14’s Div 1 under coach Bob Nilsson taking the title for the first time. U14’s Div 2 came close to the second premiership title falling just short in the Grand final under the guidance of coach David Hopkins. It also saw the Father and Son coaching efforts of Keith and David Land take their sides, the U18’s Div 1 and U12’s respectively, into the top 4 spots of their competitions.
1999 – 2000 New Look Padres
The 1999 – 2000 Season bought with it a brand new sponsor, The Redcliffe Leagues Club. With this new sponsorship came a name change to Redcliffe Leagues Padres Baseball Club and with this Name change came a brand new look for Redcliffe Baseball. The new uniform consisted of Solid Grey Pants with red piping to the side, top half was made up of a red undershirt and a solid Grey over shirt with red piping with Red and white lettering “Padres” across the front.. Socks became a solid red colour and the hat was the only thing to remain the same. Junior uniforms too had evolved over the past few years seeing the candy striped shirt being replaced with a solid red shirt with White lettering across the front but now it was time to make the uniform look similar to the Senior uniform. Shirts became a 2 coloured shirt with Grey in the middle and Red sleeves, pants became solid grey similar to the senior grey. So with new sponsor and new uniforms it was down to business as the Club with a New Club Coach Nev Brockie fielded 5 Senior teams and 9 Junior teams. Again, Major’s A, B and C missed out on a top 4 finish and it was left to our Minor.s A and B to carry to the Padres torch with both finishing in finals contention. Minor B just fell short of defending their title bowing out in the semis but Minor A went for a historic 3 from 3 Premierships this time under the guidance of coach Keith Wright. Juniors tried hard but could not repeat last season’s result with U12’s, U14’s Div 1, U16’s Div 2 and U18’s Div 1 all making top 4 qualification with only U18’s under guidance from Phil Schramm and Danny Dunsdon reaching a Grand final play-off.
2000–2001: Modern Major A
In 2000, Baseball Queensland decided to make the Major A competition a wooden bat league. A growth in membership at Junior level but a decline at senior level saw Padres field 3 Senior Teams and 11 Junior teams. The season saw a return to form for our Major’s with B and C both finishing in the top 4 to enter finals contention. It also gave us a solid Junior season with U18’s Div 1, U16’s Div 2, U14’s Div 1 and Div 2 as well as two U12’s teams all making a top 4 finish with our U12’s RED team with coach Andy White becoming our first U12’s Premiers.
2001–2002: Triumphant Padres
The 2001–2002 season was the among most successful year since the club had been formed, with President Terry King and A-Grade coaches Phil Schramm and Glen Brockie, two premierships were won in both Major B (Coach Geoff Sharpe) and Minor B (Coach Keith Land). The club fielded 4 Senior Teams and 16 Junior teams. Juniors had another solid year with U18’s Div 1 making the semi-finals, U18’s Div 2 making the Grand-Final, U16Div 1 making their semi-finals and U12’s Red with coach Doug Reust finishing Minor Premiers but just missing out on defending their title. Another first for our club saw our first ever QLD WOMENS TEAM representative in Anne-Maree McLaughlin.
2002–2003 A Growing Club
Biggest Playing Membership since the club started has enabled us to field 6 Senior Teams and 20 Junior teams. For the first time all of our Major Teams made top four positions and qualified for the finals but unfortunately no Grand-Final berth. The Minor Teams did not fair well and did not qualify for the finals. Junior teams struggled a little this season but we still managed to come away with U14’s Div 2 Premiership under coach Nev Dallison. U12’s White and Black Teams both qualified for the finals but did not progress to the Grand-Finals. For the second season in a row we had Reps in the QLD Women’s Baseball with Lisa Kirby and Melissa Graham being chosen. Lisa also went on to be chosen in the Australian Women’s Baseball Team another first for our club.
2003–2004: Last at Showgrounds
Much of the focus of the season was off the field as the club prepared for a move to their new grounds at Talobilla Park by securing government and council grants. The club had a small decrease in size as it went down to six senior teams and seventeen junior teams, yet only managed to secure an U12 premiership. The Major C team also came close to breaking its own Greater Brisbane League record when they defeated Narangba Demons 41–1 to become minor premiers.
2004–2005: Field of Dreams
After 12 years of Baseball the club finally had a field of their own, where they wouldn’t have to dismantle fences for the Local Show or put a temporary Home Run Fence up only to have to take it down later that day. A ground where they could build and develop the club and its players to reach their full potential.
2007–2008: A-Grade Success
The 2007-2008 proved to be the most successful one in history for the Redcliffe Padres Major A team as they won the Commissioners Cup and finished third overall in the regular season standings of the Greater Brisbane League with teams stats of a win percentage of .656, batting average of .256, ERA of 4.46 and fielding average of .936. Success in the 2007-2008 season was mostly on the back of Canadian import Brett Murray who finished the season with an ERA of 2.42 and 122 strikeouts over the course of 104.1 innings and an 11–3 pitching record, highest in the league. Brett also contributed with the bat collecting 38 hits, including 11 doubles in the season. Steven Greer was a surprise representative for the Queensland Rams team that year along with Jay Nilsson and coach Bob Nilsson, Steven led the team with runs scored (30) and bases stolen (18 from 19 attempts), this capped off a fine Claxton Shield performance from previously unknown Steven Greer with 3/6 in two games including 3 RBIs.[9] Phil Schramm also had a high season with an OB% of .480 in 19 games including 4 saves. Schramm also led the league in hit by pitch balls, an astounding 16 times.
The team had some success after qualifying for the post season, winning their semi-final series 2–0. However, the grand final series against Runcorn Indians proved to be difficult as import and starting pitcher Brett Murray’s visa expired before the series could commence. A defensively weak Padres team lost the series convincingly 2–0 to be the Greater Brisbane League runners up.
2008–2009: Australian Club of the Year
The A-Grade team looked promising with two new Canadian imports, Devon Franklin and Brandon Hunter as well as a couple of new senior players, including the return of ex Queensland Rams pitcher Brian Debert. On top of the collection of new senior players, the A-Grade team would also see the emergence of eligible U18 players such as Queensland U18 pitcher, Lucas Bakker.
The team got off to a shaky start making 18 errors and only one win in their first four games but managed to notch wins against all three Brisbane Metro teams in as many weeks following. However, the club’s A-Grade success was dampened by announcement of Canadian Devon Franklin that he would be leaving Australia early to go home before Christmas.
At the Christmas break, Padres was awarded the opportunity to play in the second consecutive A-Grade Commissioners Cup, with coach Bob Nilsson and center fielder Stephen Greer away after being called up to the Queensland Rams squad. The team played Surfers Paradise on 21 December at Beenleigh Hawks baseball ground and retained the shield under coach and Nilsson brother, Ron Nilsson. The game was won 4–3 with Brian Debert pitching 8 innings.
The A-Grade team looked like they were going to cement a 2nd-place finish on the Northside until a horror run in March. Apart from the two-game sweep against All-Stars, where A-Grade veteran Danny Dunsdon became the first player to play 400 games for the club,[14] the team lost their four remaining games against Windsor and Pine Rivers meaning the team only scraped into the finals with the 2nd wildcard. They would face off against Pine Hills Lightning in the semi-finals but lost to an opposition with far more momentum going into the finals in the 3rd game of a best-of-three series.
The B-Grade team also had a horror run in the second half of the season, dropping them from equal 3rd at the end of the year to 8th by the end of the season. This horror run was not assisted by a mid-season injury to pitcher William Preinke who broke his arm while pitching.
Major C, Minor A and Minor C enjoyed finals baseball as well, but neither grades managed to qualify for the final. Indeed, the only premiership for the club would be the U16 Division 1 team, who also won the minor premiership that year.
On 9 December 2008, the club was named by the Australian Baseball Federation as the 2009 Baseball Club of the Year along with the Doncaster Baseball Club in Victoria, the largest club in Australia. In May, the club was also awarded Baseball Queensland junior club of the year as well as Sally West being awarded Volunteer of the Year.
2009-10 season: Major A Minor Premiers
The Greater Brisbane League 2009-10 season commenced late September in 2009 and is an important one for the club as a new Greater Brisbane League format will be introduced with the Major A and Major B split into two divisions as well as a Masters competition being run by Baseball Queensland. The season saw the introduction of teams from Carina and Toowoomba back into the Majors.
On 2 July, the club announced its new A-Grade coach as Todd Fairbrother, an ex Daikyo Dolphins and Queensland Rams player and coach to replace retired Bob Nilsson. Bob, however, soon returned to coach the B-Grade team and helped manage the A’s.
The club finished 5th overall after the qualifying rounds with a 9–5 record, placing them in the top eight and qualifying for the Queensland Major League. Although the team started strong in the qualifying round, the team dropped four straight games including one run losses to Wests and Beenleigh Hawks but finished strong with the return of Rodney Wodson from overseas, winning six from their last seven.
After the preliminary rounds, the B-Grade team, by finishing 2nd, qualified for the Commissioners Shield and defeated Windsor 7–6 for the club’s third successive Commissioners Shield trophy. With expanded rosters for the 2010 Claxton Shield, four
players were named in the active 19-man roster; Carlos Prichard, Steven Greer, Rodney Wodson and Jay Nilsson.
At the Christmas break, Padres was awarded the opportunity to play in the second consecutive A-Grade Commissioners Cup, with coach Bob Nilsson and center fielder Stephen Greer away after being called up to the Queensland Rams squad. The team played Surfers Paradise on 21 December at Beenleigh Hawks baseball ground and retained the shield under coach and Nilsson brother, Ron Nilsson. The game was won 4–3 with Brian Debert pitching 8 innings.
The A-Grade team looked like they were going to cement a 2nd-place finish on the Northside until a horror run in March. Apart from the two-game sweep against All-Stars, where A-Grade veteran Danny Dunsdon became the first player to play 400 games for the club,[14] the team lost their four remaining games against Windsor and Pine Rivers meaning the team only scraped into the finals with the 2nd wildcard. They would face off against Pine Hills Lightning in the semi-finals but lost to an opposition with far more momentum going into the finals in the 3rd game of a best-of-three series.
The B-Grade team also had a horror run in the second half of the season, dropping them from equal 3rd at the end of the year to 8th by the end of the season. This horror run was not assisted by a mid-season injury to pitcher William Preinke who broke his arm while pitching.
Major C, Minor A and Minor C enjoyed finals baseball as well, but neither grades managed to qualify for the final. Indeed, the only premiership for the club would be the U16 Division 1 team, who also won the minor premiership that year.
On 9 December 2008, the club was named by the Australian Baseball Federation as the 2009 Baseball Club of the Year along with the Doncaster Baseball Club in Victoria, the largest club in Australia. In May, the club was also awarded Baseball Queensland junior club of the year as well as Sally West being awarded Volunteer of the Year.
2010-11 Season
With the departure of Bob Nilsson, Phil Overlack joined Todd Fairbrother at the helm of the A-Grade squad. The team qualified for Major League but missed out on finals by 1 win. The 7-9 Pine Hills Lightning would go on to defeat the 16-2 Windsor Royals in A-Grade that year.
All other grades qualified for the finals, with Major B bowing out in the preliminary final, SQBL A losing their grand final by 1 run in the final inning, SQBL B winning the premiership and SQBL C scraping into the semi-finals but getting thoroughly defeated.
From 2011 till Present Day there is little documented facts of how well we competed and grew as a club.
2013-14 Season
The club continued to grow and develop with the starting of the construction for an indoor batting cage facility. The club fielded 6 Senior sides and 16 Junior Teams. Major A finished the year as Runner’s Up, Major AAA claimed the premiership for the third year in a row, equalling the efforts of our Minor A Grade nearly 14 years earlier. Pacific League D RED also finished Minor Premiers but bowed out in the Grand-Final to finish Runner’s Up. 4 Junior sides finished in top four positions to be able to compete in the finals.
2015-16 Season
Club again grew strong in membership, seeing Padres enter 7 Senior and 18 Junior Teams into competition. Seniors finished with 4 teams competing in finals, Masters Team finishing as Minor Premiers. From there both Major B and Major C grade finished as Premiers. Juniors had 8 teams finish in finals contention with U14 Div1, U12 Div 1 and U12 Div 2 Davis teams ending the regular season as Minor Premiers. U14 Div 1 (Keith Land) and U12 Div 2 Hoppy (David Hopkins) took the season honours of Premiers.
2016-17 Season
Padres once again saw strong membership growth with the club fielding 7 Senior and 20 Junior teams. All Major teams and Masters Team finish in top Four, with Major B and Masters ending the regular season as Minor Premiers. From the finals Major B again takes Back to back Premierships. Juniors finished with 5 teams in finals contention. U14 Div 1 WHITE and U12 Div 1 WHITE ending the regular season as Minor Premiers with both teams going on to claim their respective Premierships, giving U14 Div 1 (Keith Land) back to back titles.
As we move forward as a club, it is important to remember and celebrate our past, for it is there that we acknowledge all those faces and names that have gone before us. This club is built on community, friendships and commitment to make Baseball a strong and competitive sport on the Redcliffe Peninsular. Thank you to all the countless volunteers over these 25 years that have helped out in so many different ways, your commitment and enthusiasm has helped forge a strong and vibrant club. To all the players, you are why this club has existed for 25 years, from Tee-Ballers to Masters thank you for the the many memories of great baseball.
Peninsular / Redcliffe Leagues Padres has over 25 years produced a lot of great baseball players, Umpires and team officials, too many to mention them all, for fear of missing some. They have gone on to represent this club at Regional levels, State Levels, National Levels and International Levels with pride. We acknowledge your efforts to promote both baseball and this club at such a high level, well done!!
25 years gone and it only feels like the beginning, so celebrate the good times and raise a glove to the next 25 years.