Hello and welcome to the 2026 recap, of Cods Baseball annual sojourn to the Victorian Masters Baseball Championships. As usual the championships were held in the lovely city of Ballarat. This year, 13 Cods decided to swim upstream to Ballarat and show off both their baseball and social capabilities to the rest of the Masters Baseball community. Once again, The “Chief Cod” Nathan Pool organised the accommodation, got the uniforms in the car and was collating the ‘Pufferfish’ award from last year’s championship, Cods 2025. So what happened?

How did the Cods go?

The Cods have once again competed and completed at the Victorian Masters baseball Championships. Here is a short recap of what they were actually there for…….baseball! In very trying conditions on Thursday afternoon, The Cods were competitive against the Tip Rats falling just a little short. On Friday morning it was still rather dark when The Cods arrived to kick the dew off the surface at 8am (if the wind hadn’t blown it away) against the Vikings. Brendon French started on the bump and did his best to stop the Vikings hitters. The Vikings plundered the Cods pitching a feasting, and basically blowing The Cods away by a fair margin. Special mention to Kelsey, “Caps” Burder, who guessed right and got his first hit in a while!

The Cods moved over to Diamond three, to take on the Bald Eagles on Friday morning. The ‘Big Cod,’ Nathan Pool, took the ball and threw his usual array of rubber arm pitches. The Bald Eagles gradually wound the Cods in, but there was still plenty of fight, and the Cods salvaged a draw. Rob, “Butts” Seymour, lead the charge gathering his usual tally of hits, and overall, three out of four games were played in an 18 hour stretch. The Cods then bid farewell to Bill Clear and Jason Jonker as their weekend was all done by 11:30am Friday!

Then the next 28 hours passed with little fanfare or anything to report………

The Cods returned to play Bendigo Dragons in their final game. Rookie Cod, Fraser Chadwick started on the hill, with Kelsey manning the bench. Cods got to bat first with Burder leading the way after more pestering from Tetsu Kamiyama. The Cods bats finally came alive and burst out of the blocks. Rob,”Butts” Seymour, collected another couple of hits and day three pitching specialist, Ash Meyers, closed out the game for the one win the Cods needed to complete their bingo card for the weekend.

Special mention to Cam Scott who managed to get a hit while under plenty of pressure from his former Tyabb clubmates. Bad luck Jason Humbles. You didn’t get to see it!

One win one draw and two losses to The Cods….another successful three days away.

Undies flexes his pitching chops

In the early game Friday, the ball was thrown to the man of side burns and moustache; Brad “Undies” Murdoch, who took to the mound late in the game against the Vikings. Brad honoured his part of the bargain, throwing strikes and making the superior Vikings batters hit. Undies said this was a “one off” appearance on the hill, but one thing is, we may see Brad on the Rangers mound again in season 2026.

Bill goes on an excellent adventure.

Michael, “Bill” Clear, has had what you could say, an “adventurous” time on the diamonds of Ballarat.  It all started at second base on Friday, where Bill just didn’t really adapt to the conditions. At one point you could audibly hear him say in the howling gale with a pop up flyball say “******!!!” With all things considered, Bill took a lot of the creative feedback on the chin and thoroughly enjoyed his entire 18 hours at the masters. Have you still got your little lure Bill, or did you drop that too????.

Kingsley finds a new Cod

The Cods arrived in Ballarat with their usual expectations, and the Ballarat weather was  more fickle than in past Ballarat trips. However the doyen of Masters Baseball, Kingsley Collins, somehow managed to get a picture of a fingerling, Fraser Chadwick. It came to the attention of Line Drive while at a mandatory Cods meeting. This is a great achievement, as so far there has been no sighting of Frase wearing Cods gear. Thankyou Kingsley for making Line Drives job much easier, and as ever, you take very nice photos to use too.

Tetsu blames everyone

Testsu Kamiyama was in fine form over the weekend. From the time he arrived in Ballarat he was already dishing out plenty of banter towards, basically, everyone. He managed to blame Bill Clear for his muffed flyball, as he said Bill put “bad vibes” on second. In game two on the Friday, Tets was sent to the mound and The Big Cod Nathan Pool took over. As soon as that happened, a crisp double play was turned and Cam, “The Soak” Scott, said “well you weren’t involved and look how smooth that was!” Tets just smiled as usual. However, the main target of most of his comments were towards Kelsey, “Hats” Burder, with Tets continually saying “swing, swing, swing” at every pitch. Hats decided to decline the idea of swinging at everything, and was happy to watch the ball sail over the plate for strike three and then be jogged off. You might need better material Tetsu.

Thrillmore doing Gilmore things

Kyle, “Thrillmore” Gilmore, returned to The Cods on Friday and his return was both refreshing and most welcome. He announced himself by almost tracking down a long foul ball early on in the game against the Vikings, and was razor sharp at the plate seeing six pitches with six very hard swings and misses. Then heading into the second game against the Bald Eagles, Gilly decided to do something else. He let the ball pass without swinging. Not once, not twice, but FOUR times to get a walk to first. Once he took occupation of first base, Gilly then let the first baseman know their pitcher was the only pitcher of the day that had not struck him out.  So the first baseman let the pitcher know.  Razor sharp as ever Gilly.

Keep your hat on Kelsey.

Hats has popped up a lot in this edition, as has Kelsey Burder, but sometimes his stories are just too good let pass through. Not to mention that this little writeup would be a lot shorter if it was not for him and his merry band of men. Gilly told Line Drive he was keeping count of strikes that Kelsey was not swinging at, and was also counting the number of times he had lost his hat. At the end of the Bald Eagles game it was a tie at 3 all. Many hats are adjustable Kelsey and if it is windy, tighten it up!

You can stand under my umbrella…..

Many of you out there may be singing the next line to that song, but serial pest, Tetsu Kamiyama, took his umbrella onto the field to warm up on Thursday. In wet, cold, windy conditions, Tets kept dry by juggling the umbrella while having a warm up throw. Below is proof. However, now it’s raining more than ever………….. Tets can stand under his umbrella…….

Ella Ella eh eh……………

Cods chat.

Another blinder of a weekend in Ballarat, no matter the conditions! The Cods Masters Baseball had a tonne of fun. A big thankyou to the organising committee, volunteers, umpires, scorers and basically anyone who played, smiled, laughed and bantered. As we get older, Line Drive hopes that Cods will recruit new fingerlings (that’s a name for a baby cod) to come along, get involved and be part of it. Line Drive would love for more of the old players from the North East to come along for some baseball fun, sharing stories old and new. If you take the opportunity to see outside your own club, you won’t be disappointed. Ask any Cod, past or present and they would say, it’s a great weekend!

• Cods Lures
• Who has lost their rubber Cod bait? Bill and “Ted” Jason Jonker has, pay your dues gentlemen.
• Where’s Cam? A phrase muttered by a few old Tyabb men over the weekend!
• What was that word after you watched another ball go over for strike three Kelsey? pwaaarrrhhhh?????
• New shirts on the agenda for 2027, Fraser Chadwick just likes the old one, as do many others.
• Nice work to Rob, “Butts” Seymour awarded the 2025 Pufferfish award. Two time winner, nice work Duke Kaboom.
• Sticking around to watch Owen, ‘Big Table’ Godenzi bat? Gilly says “nah I’ve seen how this ends before…!” Pop up!
• How many years now for Barks, FOMO Pool and Buttsy?
• Sunscreen required Jason Jonker? Maybe?
• Nice hat Frase. Pikachu power!
• Happy birthday Barks!
• Bill gets back home Friday night, goes straight to baseball training! Now that is commitment!
• Hi Cav, Ash gets the bird!
• How was the roast on the way home Sunday Ash Meyers? Always a good roast in Seymour.
• If Josh Graham has read this far, then Line Drive knows he found an audio version! Or he got AI to do something for him.
• Cods Quaddie chances improve. The Cods got the first leg in 13 years and then went out in the second. Rob, “Butts” Seymour, was rather incensed with this turn of events. Try supporting Carlton then!

Cods 2026 were

Nathann Pool, Rob Seymour, Damon Barker, Ashley Meyers, Brendon French, Jason Jonker, Michael Clear, Kelsey Burder, Kyle Gilmore, Bradley Murdoch, Fraser Chadwick, Tetsuya Kamiyama and Cameron Scott.

What a weekend. All are looking forward to doing it all again in 2027. No matter the conditions, it is just good fun. Line Drive needs a rest. Take care and….. Rangers normal programming will resume for the next edition. Thank you.

Go Cods!