Ken Wyatt (Hasluck, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

During my time serving the people of Hasluck, I have had the opportunity to meet with many inspiring people. One of those people is a fellow Western Australian who is little-known in the Australian media but has achieved great success overseas. His name is Jon Byrne, and it should not take much for me to pitch to you the success of this Australian major league umpire of baseball.

Jon Byrne of Perth has joined one of the hardest clubs to crack in all sports. He will have completed an odyssey that only a select few ever make. Many of you would have heard of the New York Mets or the Red Sox and you may also know that baseball is America's favourite sport. But there have only been 11 major league baseball umpires born outside the US, most of whom were born elsewhere in the Americas.

In May last year, as Jon stepped onto the field he made history. Jon officiated America's favourite pastime at the highest level in the major leagues. Jon is the first Australian-born major league umpire and Jon has truly broken the record. This is no stroke of luck. This comes after 10 years of working in the minor league baseball game throughout the US. This is no insignificant accolade. There are only 74 umpires required in major league baseball. It has been a long run, if you consider that Jon started umpiring in WA as a 13-year-old 18 years ago.

I am humbled to know that Jon made his start in the under-12s ballparks in Perth. But no great home run comes without sacrifice, especially when the hard journey begins with being away from his family seven months of the year, even though Jon's family can watch him from home on video stream, and his wife Kim and eight-year-old daughter Ella make the journey to the US to see him.

I must say that I do have a lot of respect for umpires and referees in any sport. They put in a huge amount of effort, and the fans only notice them once they feel that their team has been treated unfairly by those in charge.

In Jon's case, he has been extremely successful. Baseball is in Jon's DNA. Jon's father Stephen Byrne is the chairman of the Baseball WA board of directors. I was delighted last year to see Jon nominated for the Fielder's Choice Official of the Year at the Australian Baseball Gala. I was very proud to see a fellow Perth local receive such an accolade. This was truly a great representation of baseball in WA and nationwide.

Major League Baseball and the Australian Baseball Federation have joined forces in Australia, thus reviving the Australian baseball league and re-energising a strong baseball following in Australia. This has provided a launch pad for young Australian talent and international players in their US off-season. The Australian national baseball team has participated in all three instalments of the World Baseball Classic and the Perth baseball club has been managed by the Pacific Rim scouting coordinator of the Boston Red Sox.

In their opening game in 2009, the Australian team defeated Mexico 17 to seven and set a new tournament record for hits in a game with 22, including four home runs. Australia finished fifth in the 2011 IBAF Baseball World Cup, but Australia's most spectacular international baseball achievement to date came at the 2004 Athens Olympics, where the Australian team took the silver medal. Australia currently has 60 players under contract with US major league organisations. As you can see, in world baseball Australia is having a good strike rate.

Barbagallo Ballpark in my electorate of Hasluck is the home of baseball in WA. It is located at Tom Bateman Reserve, Thornlie. Barbagallo Ballpark has a seating capacity of 1,200 and standing room for a further 4,500. This includes an upgraded batter's eye in centrefield, an electronic scoreboard, an improved playing surface and an outfield fence. As a great fan of the local WA baseball team, Perth Heat, I want to see Perth become the next capital of baseball in Australia.

I congratulate Jon Byrne and wish Perth Heat good luck for this season. The thing I love about the game is that it is one of the only games I know of where, when a foul ball goes outside the field, the kids are allowed to keep the ball. At the end of the game, the kids race down and find their favourite player and get the ball autographed, leaving them with a souvenir. In the last Perth Heat game I went to, 26 balls became the property of the young fans who enjoyed chasing those balls, getting them and having them signed.