Ryan Flynn has stepped down from his role as Baseball New Zealand chief executive. Photo / Photosport
In the last decade, New Zealand's baseball scene has emerged from the underground and on to the big stage. Christopher Reive talks to Baseball New Zealand chief executive Ryan Flynn – the man behind its rise – as he steps down from his role with the organisation.
New Zealand was Ryan Flynn's field of dreams.
It was a place where baseball was in its infancy; where the sport got no attention and very little participation.
But as the creepy voice whispers to Kevin Costner's character in the 1989 cult classic: "If you build it, he will come."
Flynn was working in Washington when he was contacted about shifting to the other side of the world to take on a role with Baseball New Zealand in 2009. Working in marketing at the time, the role being offered wasn't an unfamiliar one for the New York native.
He had made a name for himself during his time working with the national baseball programme in Guam, helping the small island nation compete for a spot in the 2000 Olympic Games. They fell agonisingly short, but overachieved for such a small country – and Flynn's work behind the scenes put him on the radar of those involved in the sport down under.
Dedicated to the sport, Flynn left his wife, Jennyfair, and two young children behind in Edmonds, Washington, and made the move to New Zealand on a three-month trial period. After the trial period, he was offered, and quickly accepted, the role of Baseball New Zealand chief executive.
It didn't take long for him to see the sport had plenty of room to grow with just a few hundred people playing, mostly in Auckland.
"All the equipment in the country was in our little garage in Pakuranga, a small amount of old, beaten up gear; baseballs were rare and valuable," he recalls to the Herald.
The baseball world wasn't new to Flynn. He had played at a high collegiate level as a third baseman, took up a role in Major League Baseball's London office after going undrafted and, as well as the time spent in Guam, had a number of contacts in MLB and international baseball.
With a minimal budget, he got to work on both the national team and the grassroots game, with the thought of one day basing a professional team in the country noted as a long-term goal early on in his tenure.
"You have to build down from the top, build up from the bottom and meet in the middle," he explains. "The sport won't grow if you do not have the top level to show it off, the 'sexy' stuff, the opportunities at all age grades.
"People need to see the excitement, what the sport can offer if they are to get off the sofa or leave another code for baseball.
"The model was there; in the football competition it's Australia and New Zealand, basketball is Australia and New Zealand. We needed that for baseball."
Looking to build the national set up, Baseball New Zealand soon opened national teams to anyone who had or could get a New Zealand passport. This alone opened the game to children around the country competing in other sports, with Flynn recalling he once had a javelin thrower from Northland trial for an age-group side.
Flynn negotiated with MLB hall of famer Cal Ripken himself to get the nation's top under-13 players in the Ripken World Series every year in the United States; he lobbied the World Baseball Softball Confederation and other international baseball leaders for "wild cards" for various national teams to participate in world championship events; and he negotiated with contacts to place the country's top players in academies across the globe.
On the open scale, it was soon clear there was definitely the talent to put together a squad to compete. There were New Zealand eligible players already playing the game around the world – in the Australian Baseball League, in Canada, in the United States and elsewhere.
Flynn worked hard to get the national team up and running and in 2011 got the news New Zealand had been included in a new qualification round of the World Baseball Championships in 2012, the sport of baseball's true world cup.
For the competition, the Diamondblacks rolled out a competitive squad including local star Scott Campbell, who had been playing in the minor league system with the Toronto Blue Jays, and the strong arm of Major League talent John Holdzkom.
Holdzkom, then still working toward his MLB debut, contacted Flynn out of the blue asking of the possibility or interest in him and his equally talented brother, Lincoln, joining the New Zealand squad. They were eligible through their Kiwi father, and when Flynn did a little digging he discovered what would be the anchors to his pitching staff; brothers who could throw upwards of 162km/h from the mound.
Baseball in New Zealand experienced a turning point in 2011 when Flynn organised the first domestic youth games to be televised on SKY, coinciding with a visit from New York Yankees star outfielder Curtis Granderson. He was one of many more MLB visits to come.
"I think when we brought Curtis Granderson out in 2011, that was when people started to take notice of what we were doing."
From then, the sport has continued to grow in New Zealand. More and more people are becoming aware of its availability and, in 2018, more than 8000 players were involved across clubs and schools in many corners of the country.
But it hasn't just been on the grassroots level that the sport has risen, with the national team reaching as high as No.25 in the world and being coached by some of the best in the business.
The most recent Diamondblacks team was managed by Chris Woodward, current manager of the Texas Rangers in the MLB, while the current bench coaches of the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, Josh Bard and Ron Roenicke, have also been part of the Diamondblacks' coaching staff. None of their roles with the New Zealand team were paid.
They, too, believed in the mission and passion.
Flynn is open in discussing his use of his contacts over the years, and admits it came with a lot of rejection.
"I was never worried about asking for help, for money, equipment," he says. "The people who believed in what we were doing were always willing to do what they could. Enough people bought into the vision early to keep us going."
Passion and belief were key words in Flynn building a team to grow the game. Over the years he's found plenty of people who wanted to help and who were, as he says, as tenacious as he was. Pandy Fruean, Gareth Hooton, Ian McDonald, Dan Tan, Riki Paewai and several others over the years have helped the cause, and many of them initially worked for free.
This small group never stopped working; not on weekends or over holiday periods.
"They believed in what I was selling, thankfully," Flynn recalls.
"We all believed even when others didn't - which was most of the time in the early years - and we pushed the envelope when others said no or that it couldn't be done. That only fueled us further."
All the work in growing the sport culminated in late 2017 when the Australian Baseball League announced they would be expanding. It was finally the opportunity to get New Zealand its own professional team, and Baseball New Zealand was in a position to put a bid together to bring a team to Kiwi shores.
The structure for the league was confirmed in 2018, with two teams being added for the 2018-19 season. A Korean team based out of Geelong, and a New Zealand team based in Auckland.
"That was nine years in the making," Flynn says.
"Some people, even last year, didn't think we would ever have a team in the Australian League. But I knew that was where we needed to be from my first days here. It was not an option; it was a necessity for the growth of the sport, I felt."
It was a matter of months between the confirmation of the team in the league and the start of the season, and it was an absolute scramble to get things ready for opening day.
Putting together a competitive roster which included former MLB players, top professionals from Japan, China and Taiwan, Kiwi professionals, young imports from around the world and young local prospects called development players, and the Auckland Tuatara was born.
While the results might have been hard to come by in their debut season, the groundwork had been laid for the growth of the club going forward. Over the course of the season, 28 Kiwis suited up for the squad, and the Tuatara beat every team in the league with the exception of their opening week opponent in Perth. For a team without a permanent home venue who had to spend 54 days on the road, including a 40-day stretch at the end of the season, it was an impressive start.
But the time crunch around getting everything sorted for the team saw Flynn's focus move away from the national body for the best part of a year. It soon became a sign to the 48-year-old that it was time for something else.
"The board and staff were really stretched, it was exhilarating, but undoubtedly wore us down by the end," Flynn says "With the Tuatara last year and essentially fighting for time with the national body to get it off the ground, it just seemed like the perfect time for me, for everyone, to change directions.
"I was proud with what we were able to achieve with the Tuatara. Everyone rallied and got it over the line, and we provided a showcase for the sport, visibility and exposure that no other project or initiative could provide for baseball in this country."
Former Sky TV boss John Fellet will fill in as Baseball New Zealand chief executive until a permanent replacement is found, while Regan Hunt takes over as Tuatara general manager.
With all the little points and details Flynn implemented in his time at the helm, young Kiwi players have been able to make the most of their opportunities. Many are now playing at the collegiate level in the States, others on the Tuatara and playing in front of their families as professionals, while young Auckland pitcher Kyle Glogoski is well on his way toward making the MLB with the Philadelphia Phillies organisation – his successes adding to the legacy Flynn will leave behind.
While he's spent the past decade of his life putting his heart and soul into the organisation Flynn says it's the right time for a change. He looks forward to giving back to his family, who willingly sacrificed a great deal so he could take on the role in the first place.
"We landed in a beautiful country, my children are now Kiwis, but they gave up family time - a decade's worth - and I have some making up to do.
"Ten years is a good run," he says fondly. "It's time for something new; time for the next great adventure."
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