The Baseball Confederation of Oceania is the governing body of baseball within Oceania, and is responsible for the Oceania Baseball Championship. The Baseball Confederation of Oceania was established in 1989, it currently has 14 member nations. Not all member nations are represented in the executive committee which creates conflict within the region. The lesser countries tend not to support regional tournaments which contributes negatively to the growth of the sport in the region. Ray Brown, the BCO Development Officer, provides support throughout the region. Since 2006, the BCO has run a Regional Training Centre for aspiring players. Run for approximately 10 days, the RTC is open to players 14-18 who want to perform at a higher level. In 2006, the RTC was held in Auckland, New Zealand. In 2007, it was held in Christchurch, New Zealand.
History
Baseball arrived in most parts of Oceania as a result of Japanese influence prior to and during World War II, and American influence, particularly following the war. The Japanese influenced was most pronounced in Micronesia, particularly Palau. The Baseball Confederation of Oceania was established in 1989, it currently has 14 member nations. The organisation adopted a policy of sharing the rights to hold BCO Tournaments between the northern and southern Oceania areas, on an alternative basis. Either New Zealand or Australia should hold the 18U BCO playoffs in 2015 since Guam held them in 2012. It is likely that New Zealand will hold this tournament due to the cancelling of the 15U tournament which was to be held in Auckland, New Zealand early in 2015. The cancellation was of huge disappointment to the New Zealand Baseball organisation and community. The game in New Zealand is growing significantly, which is important for the overall region and Baseball NZ had organised the localcable television company SkyTV to show some of the games lives to boost the sports profile.
Members
Rankings
When the International Baseball Federation first released their world rankings, Australia was the only team listed. The only continental tournament recognised at the time was the 2007 Oceania Baseball Championship, which had been awarded to Australia when New Zealand pulled out of the series. However, when the IBAF released their updated rankings list in August 2009, in addition to the most recently contested tournaments being added and their expired counterparts being removed, several past tournaments were also added to the ranking system, including the 2007 Pacific Games. This resulted in a further five teams being added to the world rankings list. Australia maintained its position as first of the Oceania teams, given the number of tournaments they had participated in within the tracking period, whereas the newly entered teams had only contested the one tournament. Though there are a number of teams explicitly listed in the current rankings as having participated in international tournaments within the tracking period but not in any that are considered in the ranking system, none of those teams are from Oceania.
