PEBA baseball comes to New Zealand

[Leones]

With PEBA’s announcement of the Intercontinental Baseball Coalition, New Zealand has thrown its baseball cap in the ring. This new rookie baseball league will feature divisions spanning the globe.

Kiwis will be take their place in the Tasman League. The league will feature clubs from across PEBA divisions playing in Australia and New Zealand. Here’s a tentative breakdown:

Tasman League
Melbourne, AUS (Canton)
Sunshine Coast Crocodile Hunters, AUS (London)
Wagga Wagga Crows (AUS) (Okinawa)
Sydney (North), Australia (Kalamazoo)
Tauranga, NZ (Havana)
Auckland, NZ (Fargo)
Brisbane Stevedores (Reno)

The Tauranga Taniwha will represent New Zealand in the Tasman League.

Taniwha are Maori beings that inhabit the sea, dark rivers, caves or places with dangerous currents and waves. They can take the form of sea creatures such as sharks, whales and dolphins to name a few and can be benevolent or menacing. This is reflected indirectly in the Maori name for the great white shark, mangō-taniwha.

PEBA has collaborated with New Zealand to bring youth baseball programs to the country with the Taniwha organization taking the lead on providing organization and programs to teach and run the youth programs.

Today the Taniwha released the team’s logo and announced that uniform and cap designs will be released in the near future.

The Taniwha logo features the team colors in multiple hues of blue inspired by the oceans. Central is a Maori styled hammerhead shark, a benevolent taniwha and visual reminder of the team’s motto ‘Kaua e mate wheke mate ururoa’, (Don’t die like an octopus, die like a hammerhead shark), the Maori phrase reflecting the team’s fighting spirit.

It’s early days in the IBC, no schedules have been posted yet. Fans are already looking forward to the Opening Day Haka!

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