Softball: World Series countdown continues for Black Sox

By JULIE ASH

Black Sox captain Jarrad Martin believes his team have no excuse not to win when they line up in the world series in Christchurch in January.

As the defending champions, Martin feels the Black Sox are on track to becoming the first team ever to win the title three times in a row.

"We have had sports science people in and conditioning people in.

"In the past we haven't had any of that so this time we are going to be finely tuned athletes, as they say.

"To me that means we have no excuse not to win ... which probably puts a lot of pressure on some people, but it is just the way I feel.

"I am confident we have got one of the best hitting lineups that the team has had for a number of years," Martin said.

Since their victory in 1984, the Black Sox have never finished out of the top two in a world series event - claiming the world title in 1996 and 2000.

"For us it is tough because we have been the benchmark for the other teams over the past 10 years," Martin said.

"We don't have anyone to gauge ourselves against so we have to try and do things differently because everyone else is probably doing what we have done in the past.

"We have to try and combat that and come up with new ideas of playing the game."

Since the world series team was announced in September, the Black Sox have had two camps.

The first was a team-building one at the Burnham Army base in Christchurch.

"A lot of us haven't sort of done those activities that the Army do before, like abseil down big cliff faces and hang 50ft, 100ft [15m, 30m] in the air by a piece of string.

"Some of our boys are quite big boys and it is a lot of weight to be hanging on one little piece of rope. It gets your heart going, that's for sure."

The second camp, at the Rugby Institute at Palmerston North, was a little less death-defying and involved plenty of discussion of team tactics.

"For us we are not defending the world title, we have to go there and try and win it back.

"It is not our trophy any more, it is the team's who won it last time. We want to go out and win our own title."

Born in Waitara, Martin started out in softball as a 5-year-old.

"I played a lot of other sports but softball was always my true love."

But at the age of 19, Martin's passion for sport was thrown into jeopardy when he was forced to have one of his heart valves replaced.

"I was able to carry on with softball. At the time I was playing rugby as well but I had to give that away.

"So it was never a matter of choosing one sport or another ... the equation kind of worked itself out."

With his cousin Bevan also a Black Sox member, what excites Martin most about this world series is the fact that it is in New Zealand.

"A lot of people talk about home-crowd pressure but I am actually looking forward to it because I think we are going to do well."

With the next Black Sox camp not until January, the players' focus is now on the national league, which starts this weekend.

For Martin that means turning out for Wellington, who finished third last year.

"The defending champions, Auckland, will be strong," he said.

"Last year we were the most consistent team through the round robin, then when we got to the playoffs and it counted most we didn't play our best softball - so we definitely have a score to settle."

National league

Men

This weekend: At Hutt Valley, North Harbour and Auckland

Next weekend: At Canterbury and Wellington

December 13-14: At Invercargill and Hastings

Women

This weekend: At Canterbury and Wellington

Next weekend: At Invercargill and Wanganui

December 13-14: At Hutt Valley and Auckland

Finals weekend December 20-21, Rosedale Park, Albany