February 9, 2018

Next week, on February 14, Major League Baseball (MLB) pitchers and catchers report to spring training camps in Arizona and Florida to begin the professional baseball season in the United States and Canada. South of the U.S. border, however, professional baseball’s premier winter event, the Caribbean Series (Serie del Caribe in Spanish), just wrapped up in Mexico. And this weekend, much further south in Australia, the Australian Baseball League (ABL) will end its season with the annual ABL Championship Series.

The Caribbean Series (Serie del Caribe) is an annual tournament between the professional baseball league champions of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. Credit: © Serie del Caribe

Last night, on February 8, at the Estadio de Béisbol Charros de Jalisco outside Guadalajara, Mexico, Puerto Rico’s Criollos de Caguas defeated the Águilas Cibaeñas of the Dominican Republic 9-4 for a second-straight Caribbean Series title. The annual tournament is a fierce competition between the top pro baseball teams of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela. A product of the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation, the series was first played in 1949. Cuba’s Alazanes de Granma, Mexico’s Tomateros de Culiacán, and Venezuela’s Caribes de Anzoátegui—all champions of their national professional leagues—also participated in the 2018 Caribbean Series.

The location of the Caribbean Series is rotated annually among the participating nations and is played after the end of each country’s national tournament. In 2018, the series was supposed to be played in Venezuela. Political and social unrest prevented that from happening, however, and the tournament returned to Mexico for a second-straight year. For now, the 2019 Caribbean Series is scheduled to take place in the Venezuelan city of Barquisimeto, about 217 miles (350 kilometers) from Caracas, Venezuela’s capital.

Brisbane Bandits center fielder Tommy Milone slides safely into second base during game two of the 2017 Australian Baseball League Championship Series in Melbourne, Australia. Credit: © SMP Images

Tonight (February 9), tomorrow, and Sunday (if necessary) in Australia, the Brisbane Bandits and Canberra Cavalry will duke it out in the best-of-three 2018 ABL Championship Series, Australia’s version of the MLB World Series. Brisbane is looking for its third-straight Claxton Shield as ABL champions. Canberra last won an ABL title in 2013. Six professional baseball teams compete in the ABL, playing 40 games over a season that runs from November through January during the Australian summer. In addition to the Brisbane and Canberra ball clubs, the league includes the Adelaide Bite, Melbourne Aces, Perth Heat, and Sydney Blue Sox.

August 15, 2017

This week in Brisbane, a city in Australia’s northeastern state of Queensland, many thousands of people are crowding into the Queensland Ekka, an event officially known as the Royal Queensland Show. The Ekka (Queensland slang for exhibition) is a carnival-like atmosphere of food, drink, concerts, games, pageants, rides, shopping, and animal and other competitions. The Royal Queensland Show began mainly as an agricultural exhibition in 1876, and it has evolved and grown ever since. Queensland’s largest annual event, the one-of-a-kind Ekka runs this year from August 10 to August 20.

The sun sets over Sideshow Alley at the Royal Queensland Show, an event also known as the Ekka, in Brisbane, Australia. Credit: Cozzie 1996 (licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

The first Ekka, known then as the Intercolonial Exhibition, was held in August 1876. The exhibition promoted the development of Queensland, a colony then just 17 years old. The event brought together the fast-growing and often-disparate urban and rural populations of Queensland, helping to create a sense of community. Held at Bowen Park (adjacent to the Ekka’s current home at Brisbane Showgrounds), the first exhibition’s attendance nearly equaled the entire population of Brisbane (about 22,000 at the time). The Ekka then grew in size and popularity to the extent that, in 1921, King George V of the United Kingdom allowed the addition of Royal to the exhibition’s name. The Ekka has been held every year since 1876 except in 1919, when it was canceled because of the Spanish flu epidemic, and in 1942, when the showgrounds were packed with troops during World War II.

Queenslanders parade their livestock during the Grand Parade in the main arena of Brisbane’s Ekka in 1948. Credit: State Library of Queensland

Today, the Ekka attracts about 500,000 visitors every August. Ekka is famous for its unusual mix of attractions, including a champion rooster show, a whip-cracking competition, and self-proclaimed “glamorous fashion parades.” Queenslanders have been entering the Ekka gates for generations now, and kids today still get their dagwood dogs (corn dogs) and showbags (themed gift bags), just as their grandparents did. Entertainment has modernized, of course, since the 1876 manure competition, as have the contents (and prices and varieties) of showbags. That first year, the lone showbag was a free sack of coal—reason enough for Queenslanders to attend.