The Redcliffe Leagues Padres Baseball Club, also known as Peninsula Padres Baseball Club is a baseball club located in Redcliffe, Queensland that participates in the Greater Brisbane League competition and Brisbane North Region competition. As of November 2011, it was the largest club in Queensland and second largest in Australia behind the Waverley Baseball Club in Victoria.
As of the 2011–12 season, the club fields a team in every age group of the Greater Brisbane League from Under 8 to Under 20, as well as seven senior teams including an Over 35 Master's team. On 9 December 2008 it was named by the Australian Baseball Federation as the Club of the Year.
History
Redcliffe Baseball club was founded as a senior club in 1948 by an American ex-serviceman named Chuck Carroll and was later named the Redcliffe Whitesox. Younger kids played at Redcliffe Police Citizens Youth Club then went elsewhere if they wanted to go on. Redcliffe Baseball Club had no direct feeder clubs from junior PCYC. In 1991 the PCYC could not support baseball anymore and the seniors wanted feeder clubs to support them so they joined forces at the Silcock Street oval and named themselves the Peninsula Padres – based on the San Diego Padres.
In the first year there were 7 teams in total. They needed a home run fence which they did not have at Silcock Street and could not put up. Council therefore asked them to relocate to the Redcliffe Showgrounds in 1996. The club had to take the fences down at showtime and then adjust the grounds after the show to make it suitable for baseball again. However, a big plus was the great light facility on the grounds. With greater promotion and a new facility, the move paid off with a boom and a resurgence of interest in baseball. Within a year at the Showgrounds there were 16 teams.
In 2003–2004 the Council offered Talobilla Park as an option. Touch football had rejected Council's suggestion so baseball and softball worked together to establish these sports in a permanent setting. The council, Queensland Government and the club used money to put in irrigation, back nets, turf and ancillary fixtures etc. to make the move possible. Also shipped in, was the old Redcliffe golf-club pro shop which is used for a canteen and meeting house. The move caused yet another resurgence and the club has now grown to 22 teams with about 225 players not to mention countless volunteers, coaches and administrators involved with the club. Padres is now the biggest club in Queensland, as well as second largest in Australia.
2000–2001: Modern Major A
In 2000, Baseball Queensland decided to make the Major A competition a wooden bat league and the Redcliffe Major A team led by Scott Brockie struggled to adjust to the change and finished mid-table. However, both Major B and C grade were finalists. The club fielded eleven junior teams and three senior teams and won its first ever Brisbane North premiership in the U12 age group.
2001–2002: Triumphant Padres
The 2001–2002 season was the most successful year since the club had been formed ten years ago, with President Terry King and A-Grade coaches Phil Schramm and Glen Brockie, two premierships were won in both Major B (second division) and Minor A (fourth division). The club fielded four senior and sixteen junior teams, making it the largest club in Queensland that year. Before the start of the season, the club's storage shed, a chicken shed used for the local Redcliffe Show, was set on fire by an arsonist with the club losing all but a single junior kitbag. That season the club also improved facilities at Redcliffe Showgrounds were the club was based by adding netting to the batting cages and having a PA system installed. The club was awarded four Greater Brisbane League semi-finals and the Northside junior grand finals.
