Baseballsa History and Heritage

FIRSTS IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA SPORT
By Robert Laidlaw
Aldam Murr Pettinger was a sportsman of note in South Australia through the last two decades of the 19th century, including playing in the first Intercolonial baseball games, in Victoria, April 1889.
But Pettinger also had the distinction of playing in the first Intercolonial Australian Rules Football game for SA, against Victoria (1879), as well as being a member of South Australia’s initial First-Class cricket match against Victoria (1880).
The only other man to play in those first football and cricket matches against Victoria was George Giffen, who, although suiting up to play baseball in 1889, did not play in the first Intercolonial baseball game.
And, amazingly, all three historic games were played in Victoria at the same location, the East Melbourne Cricket Ground, which no longer exists. It previously adjoined the MCG but closed in 1921 and became part of Victorian Railways’ land.
Who is Aldam Murr Pettinger? Obviously he was good enough to represent his colony in at least three sports, if not more, as he played at the top level in bowls and lacrosse, and was a handy golfer.
As a baseballer, Pettinger started soon after the Spalding Tour from America when professional players introduced the sport to South Australia, with three games on the Adelaide Oval in late December, 1888 – the Chicago White Stockings and the All-Americans.
Teams sprung up in South Australia in early January 1889, with Harry Simpson, one of the Spalding Tour members, offering guidance here in SA, in Victoria and NSW.
The first time Pettinger was exposed to baseball was probably after a cricket game at Adelaide Oval between North Adelaide and Hindmarsh on February 2, 1889, where another cricket game was also played on the ground at the northern end.
North was due to play a baseball game against Surveys at the conclusion of the cricket but because of a late start, (5pm), only four innings were played.
While there were no particulars of players involved in the baseball game, four North cricketers were in that first Intercolonial baseball series – George Shawyer, Joshua Rundell, Edward Phillips and Pettinger, while another teammate on the cricket field was William Claxton (elder brother of Norman).
North’s opponent in the baseball game, Surveys, included William Slight, G. Bonnar and Rue Ewers, while playing cricket for Norwood at the other end of Adelaide Oval was John Woods and Jack McKenzie, which meant nine of 10 from that first baseball Intercolonial team were there that day.
And where was the 10th player, JJ Lyons? He was playing cricket with the Australian XI against a ‘Rest of Australia’ team in Sydney!
There were several mentions of Pettinger involved with playing baseball beforehand but the first officially recorded game he played was with South Australia against a Hicks-Sawyer Minstrel team on April 6, 1889, on Adelaide Oval, where he scored two runs in a 19-2 victory, played in slippery conditions.
After that historic Intercolonial baseball match in April, Pettinger played with North Adelaide in the first official baseball season of 1889-90. His team won 11 of 16 games, ending just one victory behind Post & Telegraph and Norwood in a close competition.
For the 1890-91 baseball season, North changed its name to Adelaide and won the premiership with 18 wins and two losses, well ahead of the other five teams, and the following campaign did even better with only one loss from 20 games, with Pettinger a prominent player in the two championship sides.
Two amazing baseball games with Pettinger were played in January, 1891. The first a mammoth 72-5 victory over Semaphore on Alberton Oval, where he scored 10 runs, and then in Adelaide’s 17-15 loss to Norwood, a 13-inning thriller – he scored four runs and made 15 put outs and three assists with no errors at first base.
In his final season of baseball (1891-92), Pettinger won the batting (.524 average) and fielding awards with Adelaide.
Not a long baseball career but an impressive chapter in Pettinger’s sporting career.
While cricket was probably Pettinger’s main sport of choice, his involvement with football was legendary, commencing with his part in establishing the SAFA club South Park with John Cresswell – remember the John Cresswell stand (1923) at Adelaide Oval before the more modern Bradman (1990) and Riverbank (2013) stands?
Pettinger played in the first 12 seasons of the South Australian Football Association (SAFA), for South Park from 1877 to 1884, then Adelaide from 1885-88, including in the 1886 premiership team – he was also the first SAFA player to reach the 100-game milestone.
In those fledging years of competitive football, the first Intercolonial matches between South Australia and Victoria were arranged for July 1st and 5th on the East Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1879, the Vics winning seven goals to nil and four goals to one.
When Pettinger retired from football after the 1888 season, he was said to be one of the most popular players in South Australia and mentioned as ‘the old warhorse’ in newspaper reports at the time.
One interesting note from Pettinger’s last season was when Adelaide met the touring British Lions, a rugby team that also played Australian rules football in Melbourne and Adelaide.
After ‘England’ as they were coined, beat Port Adelaide, the Lions met Adelaide on Adelaide Oval, with the local team 6.13 to 3.5 victors. Pettinger was high up on the winner’s best player list.
But it seems cricket was Pettinger’s first love, and playing with North Adelaide in the SACA, first under the NA Young Men’s Society, before that extended moniker was dropped.
His tenure with North Adelaide, including many years as captain, lasted from 1875-76 to 1896-97 before his last two seasons were with East Torrens. In a period where low scores were the norm, Pettinger scored four centuries in SACA matches.
The first Intercolonial match between South Australia and Victoria on even terms was held from November 12-15, 1880, on the East Melbourne Cricket Ground – the day after Ned Kelly was hanged in Melbourne Gaol.
In its first innings Victoria made 329 runs, with SA replying with 77 (Pettinger out for a duck), and, following on, made 314 (Pettinger 12) to at least force the Victorians to bat again, where they passed the target for the loss of three wickets (3/64).
On the way home the South Australians played a match against Ballarat. Chasing 258 runs, SA made 321, with Pettinger scoring 28.
While SA played its historic game against Victoria, the Australian XI returned from an overseas tour of England and although due to play the South Aussies, the game was delayed until their return, so ventured into the country and played against a Northern XXII team at Para Para Mansion in Gawler.
Australia made 223 in the first innings, then bowled the Northern XXII for 69, with Fred Spofforth taking 11/41. The Northerners were 9/43 before time was called, with Spofforth again dominant, taking 5/23. The following Tuesday, the Australian XI played another Northern XXII at Kapunda on Dutton Park Oval.
The Australian XI played the SA XV on Adelaide Oval on November 26-29, 1880. SA made 113 (Pettinger 1 run), with the Aussies replying with 163. In the second innings the local XV made 117 (Pettinger 9), to 4/71 – a six-wicket loss.
Spofforth, the great Australian cricketer nicknamed ‘The Demon Bowler’, took both of Pettinger’s wickets, and finished with figures of 7/53 and 9/43 in the two innings.
Because the match had finished early, a single innings game was commenced on the Monday and the SA XV made 11/131, with Pettinger scoring just one run – bowled by the Australian captain Billy Murdoch, who took seven wickets.
Before the Australians toured England, they had played a game against a South Australian XVI on the Adelaide Oval from March 13-16 and lost!
South Australia made 206 in the first innings (Pettinger 7), to Australia’s 146, then was bowled out for 98 runs in the second innings, with Pettinger making 18 – the Register newspaper report stated ‘Pettinger played an especially good innings and got a few fine hits.’
And in Australia’s second innings, only 89 runs were scored, leaving the South Australian XVI winners by 69 runs!
Note, the Australian captain Murdoch, continued to play for Australia until 1890, eventually moving to England, where in the 1891/92 season he played for his adopted country against South Africa.
Aldam Murr Pettinger also played lacrosse in the early 1890s, before mastering lawn bowls, where he also represented South Australia several times, including 1907 with John Cressswell. He started with the Adelaide Oval Bowling Club 1901 and won its club championship five times.
In a newspaper article in the Register in 1924, it said of Pettinger as a bowler, ‘When on his game there is no other better draw bowler in Australia’.
Pettinger had ridden horses in steeplechase events earlier in his life, as well as breeding and training hunting dogs – he was an excellent gun shot. After taking up golf later, he often played a round in fewer shots than his age!
From the age of 16, Pettinger worked for D&W Murray LTD., a drapers’ business, until his retirement 50 years later (1875-1925), in the main as head of the Manchester department.
Born in Adelaide in 1859, the son of a police inspector, Richard Palmer Pettinger and Charlotte (nee Aldam). When Pettinger was two-years-old, his father was murdered by a former police officer who had been discharged from the force for drunkenness and neglect of duty.
Pettinger married Mary Elizabeth Walters in 1892 and they had three daughters, Alice, Kathleen and Joan. He died in August, 1950 when 91, and is buried in the North Road Cemetery.
Sporting Memories Tours are being held at North Road Cemetery at Nailsworth, on Wednesday mornings from 9.30am, on March 18, April 15, and for History Month, on May 6, 13, 20 and 27, 2026.
Besides Pettinger, gravesites visited on the tour include former Australian cricket captain Clem Hill, triple Brownlow Medalist Haydn Bunton senior, multi sportsman Norrie Claxton and many more notable athletes.
To book for a tour, contact cemetery manager Andrew Boucaut on 83441051 in office hours or email [email protected]. Limited spots are available.

WHO IS KURT BEVACQUA?
By Robert Laidlaw
MLB games started to be shown in Adelaide on Channel 9 in 1980 with the Philadelphia versus Kansas City Royals World Series, with many of those televised games in the early 80s capturing the imagination of the South Australian baseball community.
Perhaps one year that resonates historically was 1984, when the San Diego Padres met the Detroit Tigers.
The Padres had destroyed the dreams of Cubbies fans in Chicago when they came from two games to none down to win a five-game National League series to qualify for their first World Series.
It was an unbelievable fightback, which added to the infamous lore of the cursed Cubs, but there was another unbelievable performance in the World Series against the vaunted Detroit team, which were overwhelming favourites.
Journeyman Kurt Bevacqua had been hanging onto his Major League career by his fingernails, spending time at eight different clubs from when he was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in 1967.
A ‘spare parts’ man, Kurt was the ultimate utility/pinch hitter, who could play all infield and outfield positions, and did through his MLB career.
But his time to shine came in that 1984 World Series, when he was selected as the Padres designated hitter – a role not available in the National League in regular season games at the time.
After the Tigers won game one, Bevacqua turned game two on its head with a fifth inning three-run home run, which put San Diego 5-3 up – the final scoreline.
Detroit went 3-1 up by winning the next two games, and led comfortably in game five, until Kurt belted his second home run of the series to get his side back into the contest, trailing by just one run.
Kurt Gibson put the series to bed with a three-run home run, but Bevacqua was a candidate for the series MVP, as he batted .417 (17-7) with two doubles, two home runs and four RBIs.
The amazing aspect of Bevacqua performance was that through the 1984 season he had batted just .200 with one home run and nine RBIs – lifetime he batted .236 with 27 dingers and 275 home runs in a 15-year MLB career.
Two of the 1984 Tigers’ stars would define two further World Series games in the near future.
Gibson smashed an amazing game one, two-out, two-run home run for the Dodgers in 1988, in his only plate appearance of the series, as he was injured and had a ‘gimpy’ leg, to turn certain defeat into a miraculous 5-4 victory that laid the foundation for LA’s ‘surprise’ World Series triumph over Oakland.
Then three years later, in the 1991 World Series, Jack Morris, who had performed well for Detroit from the mound in 1984, was back again in October with Minnesota, his 10-inning 1-0 shutout of Atlanta in the seventh game a classic performance.
But, back to Bevacqua.
Before the World Series of 1984, Kurt’s major claim to fame came in 1975, when he won the ‘Joe Garagiola Bubble Gum Blowing Championship’, and was featured blowing his winning entry on a baseball card.

There were other features of Bevacqua career, many to be filed under quirky and unusual, with arguably the best the below story, described by former San Diego vice president of marketing, Andy Strasberg:
Whenever I came up with an unusual promotional idea, Kurt Bevacqua was my go-to guy.
In the first week of August 1982 the Padres were in third place in the National League West when I re-read one of the most unique baseball stunts ever staged outside of a ballpark.
The promotional stunt took place on Aug. 21, 1908 in Washington DC. His catcher’s mitt in hand, ‘Gabby’ Street, catcher for the Washington Senators, was positioned beneath the 555-foot tall Washington Monument in our nation’s capital, awaiting tossed baseballs from the top.
Though accounts vary, it is said that he missed the first 12 balls, but caught the 13th in what must’ve been a great spectacle.
For me, the ball-drop exhibition was nothing if not inspirational. I desperately wanted to replicate it in San Diego. Of course, Kurt was my first choice. He agreed before I finished asking him.
Once he was on board, I needed to get permission from Padres general manager Jack McKeon. ‘Trader Jack’ loved stunts like that. He said it was OK with him if Padres manager Dick Williams gave his approval.
So I approached the intimidating and often serious-minded Williams, explaining in detail what I was trying to stage. To my surprise, he said yes. As a caution, I shared with Williams the possibility that Kurt could hurt himself. Williams’ reply: ‘Yeah, I know. My answer is still yes.’
The next step was to secure a downtown skyscraper to cooperate.
The first two said, ‘No.’
On the third try, the good folks at Trammel Crow, who operated the Imperial Bank building, said sure, realising that the event would get their building some heightened community exposure.
The premise would be a $1000 bet between Kurt and teammate Terry Kennedy, who agreed to be the thrower from the top of the building. If Kurt was successful, the money would be donated to a local charity, the San Diego Alcoholics Olympics, that Kurt had designated. If he missed, the $1000 would go the charity of Kennedy’s choice.
Trammel Crow generously provided the $1000.
Promotion-minded radio station KFMB readily agreed to carry live, on-air play-by-play of the event. On the day of the event, they would bring a large tarp placed in the middle of the downtown intersection, replete with a red bullseye and KFMB’s call letters.
To add a touch of class, we hired a limousine to transport Kurt and Terry from the ballpark to the site. We set the date for Tuesday, August 31, the day after the team returned from a long, 10-day road trip.
To enhance the chances of a crowd gathering, we scheduled the event during the noon lunch hour. The police were now fully involved in event arrangements, diverting traffic away from the ball-drop zone.
When the limo arrived shortly before noon at the Imperial Bank building, I was overwhelmed with how many people had gathered to watch the Ball Drop. Numerous media outlets – local and national – turned out in force to cover the silliness.
As with any event, I knew there had to be added theatrics, so I enlisted three people to play snare drums at the appropriate time for a drum roll. KFMB set up loudspeakers so everyone on-site could hear the play-by-play.
Kennedy and Bevacqua each had walkie-talkies in hand. After they took their places, they began talking about the sun, the westerly wind and how Kennedy would throw the ball with backspin. Thus, a dropped baseball traveling at 125 miles per hour – according to a mathematician I hired for added authenticity – would fall away from the roof of the 24-story building that was 325 feet to the sidewalk.
To get things started, Kennedy tossed a test throw. As the ball came hurtling down, it hit the pavement and bounced 20 to 30 feet into the air, eventually landing on the second bounce amongst the thousand or so onlookers who scrambled for the ball as if it were a game-winning Padres homer.
More walkie-talkie chatter between Kennedy and Bevacqua. Like a prize fighter moments before he enters the ring, Kurt did a quick interview for KFMB and ended by saying he was ready.
Don't cha just love the build-up?
Once I heard that everything and everyone was ready, it was showtime. Drum roll, please. Collectively, everyone held their breath, especially me.
Kurt – wearing sun glasses, his Padres jersey, warmup pants and his first baseman’s glove – quickly followed the flight of the baseball. He followed the curvature of its path as it came hurtling toward him.
‘THWOK!’ was the sound as the baseball met Bevacqua’s glove.
And the crowd went wild – screaming, cheering, applauding, ohh-ing and ahh-ing.
If you are scoring at home, that would be a fly ball caught by Bevacqua between 7th Avenue and ‘B’ Street in San Diego.
Kurt then proceeded to run all over the street to catch the next four baseballs thrown by Kennedy. Thwok. Thwok. Thwok. Thwok.
The assembled crowd cheered and applauded with each catch. Kurt tossed each caught baseball as a prized souvenir into the frenzied crowd.
After the fifth catch someone in the crowd yelled out a challenge: Hey Kurt, catch the next ball behind your back! The fan said that he would add a hundred bucks to the pot.
Kurt asked the crowd, ‘Do you want me to try that?’
A roar of ‘no’ was the response from the crowd. But Kurt said, ‘Let’s try it.’
Uh, oh. That was so Bevacqua. Perhaps I should have had an ambulance on stand-by. Too late now.
Kennedy throws. Here it comes. Kurt moves over towards the ball. He places his first baseman’s glove behind his back at waist level and leans over forward trying to catch the baseball. He misses it and the baseball clears his body and my heart starts beating again.
My thanks to everyone who helped make the idea become a reality – especially Dirty Kurt and TK.
For heaven’s sake, we had a ball that August afternoon in 1982.

Footage of skyscraper drop:
http://cdn2.sbnation.com/assets/4134693/Padres_Play_Catch.gif?_gl=1*1g5ve4x*_gcl_au*NzQzNTU4Mzg4LjE3NjgzNTgyOTQ.*_ga*MTY3OTUxMTk5NC4xNzY4MzU4Mjk0*_ga_2M5GYNY1YS*czE3NjgzNTgyOTQkbzEkZzEkdDE3NjgzNTgzMzMkajIxJGwwJGgw

JJ LYONS – A BASEBALL CAREER CUT SHORT
By Robert Laidlaw
In the formulative years of South Australian baseball, from 1889, many cricketers played the game, including John James ‘JJ’ Lyons, who could have been the State’s first superstar in the sport.
After the Spalding World Baseball Tour had visited Australia in late 1888, games were played in Adelaide just after Christmas, which was the impetus of local teams springing up.
Several top cricketers were drawn to the game, including Lyons, who started his illustrious Test Cricket career Two years earlier.
There are only records of JJ Lyons playing in eight baseball games but six were with South Australia, including the inaugural three-match Intercolonial series against Victoria in Melbourne.
On Saturday, March 30, 1889, a baseball game was to be played after the Norwood v South Adelaide cricket ga clash on Adelaide Oval, which was due to finish early. Chasing South’s 134 from the previous Saturday, Norwood made 2/138 to win the match, with Lyons bowled by John Reedman for 32 runs.
In the following baseball game, Norwood proved too good, winning 31-6. JJ Lyon scored three runs, including one from a home run.
So impressive was Lyons’ performance he was selected in the South Australian team to play the Hicks Minstrels the following week on Adelaide Oval.
In sloppy conditions SA beat the Minstrels 19-2, with Lyons scoring two runs, and in the return match on Thursday, April 11, 1889, the Minstrels responded with a 16-12 victory, although Lyons hit two home runs to cement his name in the Intercolonial nine to go to Melbourne.
On April 13, 1889 the Intercolonial team played a practice match at Balhannah against a second SA nine, with the game stopped before the bottom of the sixth because of injured players. The second team was 15-0 up after three innings, before winning 17-13. Lyons collected two hits.
Then the trip to Melbourne over the Easter weekend. On Saturday, April 20, 1889, on the MCG, SA won the first Intercolonial baseball match played in Australia, 16-14 over Victoria. JJ Lyons played first base, had two hits (including a triple) and scored two runs.
On the Monday Victoria won 26-22 on the East Melbourne Cricket Ground, with Lyons picking up two hits and scoring twice. Then the following day SA won the deciding game 27-18, with Lyons again scoring two runs.
The newly-formed South Australian Baseball League was organising the first official competition, weighing up whether it should be in the 1889 winter to accommodate the number of cricketers playing, or stick to the summer months and play in the 1889-90 season.
The last recorded baseball game that featured JJ Lyons was on Friday, May 24, 1889, in the Parklands, where Norwood beat Pioneers 13-10, with Lyons scoring twice.
A decision was made to hold the inaugural baseball season in the summer, which put an end to what could have been a sensational baseball career for Lyons.
John James Lyons played in 14 cricket Tests for Australia, from 1887-97 and was regarded as one of the hardest-hitting batsmen in the world.
With bat in hand, Lyons went to the crease 27 times for Australia, scoring 731 runs at 27.07 with one century – 134 in the Sydney Second Test victory over Lord Sheffield’s XI, captained by W.G. Grace in 1892.
That century helped save a match that England had been in control of, with a first-innings lead of 163 and the score at 1/1 to start Australia’s second innings. Lyons joined Alec Bannerman at the crease and the pair put on a 174-run second-wicket partnership to give their country a chance.
In the end Australia was all out for 391 and dismissed England for 156 to win by 72 runs and secure the country’s first Ashes series victory, after losing the previous eight since 1882.
Lord Sheffield, who sponsored this English tour, donated a shield to be contested between the Australian colonies (States), which began in the 1892-93 season.
A right-handed batsman and right-arm medium-pace bowler, Lyons played 152 first-class matches, scoring 6753 runs at 25.57 with 11 centuries, while taking 107 wickets (six in Tests) at an average of 30.14.
The last of three tours Lyons was involved in to England was in 1893, when he scored 1605 runs, including a magnificent 149 at Lord’s against the MCC, thumping his century in an hour and helping the Aussies avoid defeat after being 181 behind on the first innings. It was reported in the Press Lyons’ knock was “one of the greatest displays of fast-footed driving ever given at Lord’s”.
Baseball and cricket were not the only sports for which JJ was known, as he played football with Norwood in the mid-1880s.
Lyons was born in Gawler on May 21, 1863 to James Lyons and Charlotte Walker, in controversial circumstances. James was almost 60 and married to Elizabeth Lyons, while Charlotte was just 22. After Elizabeth died, James married Charlotte and they had a further three children.
After receiving his early education in Gawler, Lyons attended the Gilles Street School in Adelaide. His first work experience was as a sharebroker, before he entered Government service in the Lands and Titles office.
The former star South Australian sportsman died at Magill on 21 July, 1927. He was survived by his wife Annie Morris (from Bendigo), and their children Maurice, John, Winifred, Alma and Jessie.
On his death many glowing obituaries were written in newspapers around Australia, including from two former Test cricketers:
Former Test cricket captain Clem Hill:
“Lyons was a great match winner. I considered him to be the greatest fast-footed hard-hitting batsman that ever lived. It would be a good thing for cricket if there were more players of the type of Lyons. He was the class of man the public liked to see in action. He was busy all the time.”
Former state cricket teammate Ernie Jones:
“By his death passes one of the greatest players in the history of Australian Cricket. As a batsman he was perhaps the most prodigious hitter the game has known. I was associated with him in the State team from 1892 until he retired from big cricket, and he was always a trier. He was ever ready to give advice or assist in any way to help budding cricketers in this State. I was his close friend for a number of years, and knew well his many good qualities.”
And previously, in his book, ‘With Bat and Ball,’ George Giffen had said:
“Jack Lyons has been, and still is, the best all-round Australian hitter. Bonnor could drive as powerfully, Massie could make the cover hit as effectively, and McDonnell was as forcible on the off, but none of them possessed the power to blaze away all round the wicket in so marked a degree as Lyons. He made the cover hit with terrific force, and anything on the wicket which comes from the off is swung round to leg like a shot.”

VALE PHILLIP CEDRIC ALEXANDER, 1949-2023
Mr. Baseball is a name earned by very few but one that suits Phil Alexander to a tee, which leaves big shoes to fill after his passing last week after 73 years on this earth, with 60 of those associated with the game he loved.
From a young boy playing the game through to his heyday as a player, then coach, not to mention his long association with the media, Phil definitely is one name in South Australian baseball that is well known and well respected.
Although associated with Glenelg Baseball Club, Phil actually originally suited up with East Torrens in the winter league and Norwood Redsox in the Night Baseball League in the summer, from 1965 – when just a teenager.
He was soon enticed back to his home town Tigers, with Glenelg for the 1966 winter and Sturt Tigers in the Night Baseball League – where he tied for the Shipway Medal as the competition’s best player.
In 1967 Phil was selected on South Australia’s team for the Claxton Shield, and continued to be a top-level player at this level until 1983, creating the unique record of being the only player to field in every position on the diamond, including pitcher.
While the Claxton Shield returned to South Australia for the first time since 1980 earlier this year, Phil played in four winning Claxton Shield teams – 1967, 1970, 1971 and 1976.
And in the early 1970s, Phil was a regular in the Australian team, gaining selection in 1970-72, including in the Aussies first Asian Series, held in Korea in 1971.
Before Phil started playing for Glenelg the Tigers only won one A grade premiership (1962), but in his reign (400-plus games) they played off in nine grand finals from 1970-86, winning four flags – two as coach – which had a lot to do with his leadership capabilities.
Although a veteran of the game, in 1982 Phil Alexander won the Capps Medal, and proved to be the ‘King of the Catchers’, with equal runners-up Mal Loveday from Port Adelaide and West Torrens’ Phil Burgess also playing the backstop position.
In a strong year Phil proved he was, even for one shining season, the best catcher in the competition with 29 votes, seven ahead of Loveday and Burgess – although Glenelg went down 6-5 to the Magpies in one of the best premiership deciders seen at Norwood Oval.
It was obvious early in his formative years Alexander was going to be a star, winning the Pomeroy Cup as the most outstanding high school player in 1966 while at Brighton High.
At under 16 and under 18 level Phil made South Australian State teams, which was a precursor to his glittering representation career in the sport.
Phil was a real character on and off the diamond, which led to his being known in baseball circles as ‘Big Phil’, a name he carried with pride and used to promote the game in the media, through his column in the daily press and as a TV baseball commentator, or when reporting on the radio with ‘KG’ Cunningham.
When the original Australian Baseball League began in 1989, Alexander was appointed the inaugural coach, another major honour in an outstanding baseball career.
When the 75th South Australian Claxton Shield Diamond All-Star Team in 2009, Phil was selected as the utility. In 2014 he was selected in the Australian Baseball Hall of Fame, and last year was elected to the inaugural SA Baseball Hall of Fame.
Dearly loved partner of Trudy, adored father and father-in-law of Vanessa and Chris, Ben and Kate, Todd and Pip, and proud grandfather of Kyle, Finnley, Ollie, Ruby, Jack and Zara. Beloved son of Ray and Dulcie Alexander (both deceased), and brother of Gloria and Colin.
Phil Alexander’s funeral will be held in the Ian Mclachlan Room, Adelaide Oval, War Memorial Drive, North Adelaide, on Friday, August 11, 2023, from 10.30am.