A WET END TO THE CLAXTON SHIELD Excerpts From The History of Australian Baseball By Joe Clark The Queensland Rams under Mike Young dominated the Claxton Shield of 1987. WA had won the Western Sector championship from the NT and SA and travelled to Brisbane to play the Rams who held a 17-3 record for the Eastern Sector playoffs. The Queensland Rams won the three game series 4-2, 19-5 and 10-6. Highlights of the Melbourne series included home runs by new 17-year-old phenomenon, Dave Nilsson. Nilsson was part of a baseball dynasty started by his father and perpetuated by himself and brothers Gary and Bob. Nowhere in Australian baseball can be found a more poignant success story than that of Dave Nilsson. As with tens of thousands of other young Australians in the 1970s, Dave started with Tee Ball in Under 9s, then to other junior levels of Under 11s, Under 13s, Under 15s. His Under 12 State rep coach, Reg Baxter, of Lismore, remembers there was something special about Dave Nilsson: I coached Dave Nilsson in the Under 12s side for QLD. He was a porky little bloke with bow legs and three foot two high, but chocker block full of confidence. You could see he was going to make it because he had the determination. Upon he reached Under 13s Nilsson began a long stretch of representing Queensland. In Under 15s | |
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