Australia's Babe Ruth World Series experience immersed in competition, culture

After each game in the Babe Ruth World Series, the two teams shake hands with each other and line up for the players of the game.

The Aussie Drop Bears added a wrinkle to that tradition by handing out gift bags to their opponents containing the Australian flag and a sample packet of Vegemite, a food spread made from leftover brewers' yeast extract with various vegetable and spice additives that is famous in Australia.

"It's just a courtesy thing to bring some of our cultures here," said third baseman Tyler Wise, who was named player of the game during Australia's 7-6 loss to Washington on Wednesday.

Having spent a fortune to travel to the States from Down Under, the Drop Bears brought only 13 players to the tournament. For the Drop Bears, it was a journey to get to Cape Girardeau.

"We went from Brisbane, Queensland, to Oakland, then from Oakland to Houston, Houston to Atlanta, then drove seven hours from Atlanta to here," Wise said.

Challenged by a lack of depth, they fell to MLB China 14-9, 12-0 to the Tropics and 7-6 to Washington.

"It's crazy," Wise said. "The competition over here is unmatched compared to Australia. There's nothing like this in Australia, especially the Babe Ruth tournament. It's a great one to be involved with. It's an amazing experience."

While the manager, Alex Howe played collegiately in America in 2013-14 as a catcher for what is now Texas Rio Grande Valley, the BRWS marks the first time in America for most of the players on the team.

"We tell any Australian player that comes for the first time, [America] is not like the movies," Howe said. "It's a beautiful part of the world. Each little town, city, and states are so different. The culture is different. Embrace it. Americans love their baseball. Cape Girardeau is a fantastic city. We've really enjoyed our time here so far ... It's a memory that's going to last forever."

"The community is very nice," Wise said. "The fields here are amazing, and overall, the people, the community is very generous."

The players have taken Howe's advice to heart so far this week, spending much of the time off of the diamond intermingling with players from other teams, posing for pictures with the Australian flag and stuffed koala bear mascot.

Edward Noy gave up three runs and struck out five batters in four innings against China on Monday and drove in a run against Washington on Wednesday. He got into baseball because one of the coaches, his father, Timothy Noy, found the American sport to be an efficient alternative to the more popular cricket.

"My dad started off by playing cricket, and then started watching baseball on TV," Noy said. "I never played cricket. He didn't want to sit there for six hours on Sunday. He didn't want to waste his Sundays."

Aside from Wise and Noy, Noah Nichols knocked in five hits and scored three runs and Xavier Short drove in four runs in three games so far this tournament for Australia.

While baseball isn't among the top sports in Australia, the island nation has produced a fair share of major leaguers. The Drop Bears' adult team played a series against the Savannah Bananas earlier in the summer. Australia as a nation has participated in the World Baseball Classic since the inaugural 2006 tournament, which has certainly had an impact on the sport's profile among the youth.

"I've seen a big change in sort of everyone's mindset," Noy said. "We can get somewhere where we're not just playing for fun, where we can represent our country and play against other big countries and then get paid."

Howe said the amount of Australians playing college baseball in America has grown significantly since he played at UTRGV.

"At that time, I would say that in each year, there would only be about three to four Australian kids that would attend college in each state. Now you see a much bigger opporunity," Howe said. "We have like over 200 players currently attending U.S. colleges and are playing baseball."

The Drop Bears will play Colorado at 9:30 a.m. on Thursday to close out the pool round of the tournament. The winner will avoid leaving town without a win.