Greatest 21 Days Baseball Profiles

Craig Shipley may have grown up in Australia. But he still grew up in a baseball family, his father a longtime local club player, The Sydney Morning Herald wrote . So, as he won a slot on the Australian national team in a game against a Japanese team, and with a scholarship to the University of Alabama via a coach that had spent time in Australia , talk turned to the American pros, and even the major leagues, according to The Morning Herald . "Don't get me wrong," Shipley told The Morning Herald in February 1981, "I'm ecstatic about playing for Australia ... But I've got my heart set on playing top-line baseball in the United States." Shipley eventually did make the pros - and the major leagues. His arrival in the majors made him the first Australian player to do so in more than 80 years. He then stayed for 11 seasons with five different clubs. He then stuck around as a scout and team official. Shipley's pro career began in 1984, signed by the Dodg...