Baseball Australia CEO and Former MLBer Glenn Williams

Australian Glenn Williams signed with the Atlanta Braves in 1993 with an attention-grabbing $950 signing bonus. He spent 10 years in the minor leagues before making his Major League debut in June 2005 with the Minnesota Twins. He's also represented his country in many international competitions as both a player and a coach. He was named GM of Team Australia in 2015. In 2021, he became the CEO of Baseball Australia. He now overseas the growth and development of baseball at all levels in Australia.

Transcript

Jeff Perro (00:09)
you

Jeff Perro (00:35)
Hello everybody, I'm Jeff Perro Welcome to another episode of Catch Up with JP. Today's guest is Mr. Glenn Williams. Mr. Williams was signed at 16 years old by the Atlanta Braves out of Australia. He went on to a long professional career, represented Australia in many, many international competitions.

He is now the CEO of Baseball Australia, which basically means he has his hand in everything baseball related in Australia. It was a really fun conversation, really got me pumped up about international baseball.

Thanks for tuning in.

Speaker 2 (01:10)
I'm here with Mr. Glenn Williams today, the CEO of Baseball Australia. Sir, I certainly appreciate your time.

Speaker 1 (01:17)
It's good to have a chat with you,

Speaker 2 (01:19)
I grew up around Baseball America, and boy, 1993 and 1994, that name Glenn Williams, that was just all over the place. now I know baseball in Australia has developed a lot since then. And a lot of that is because of you. But what was baseball like in Australia back in the 90s? And what was that being a 16 year old kid

going from Australia to the United States?

Speaker 1 (01:48)
I was fortunate to be around the game a lot of my early years. My dad played, so I grew up loving it. And then I had opportunities to be around some of the ABL teams as a bat boy and then as a development player. And I grew up in the era where Craig Shipley had just reached the major leagues and he was the first player from Australia in the modern era to play in the big leagues.

So I knew Craig well, he was my hero growing up and to see him get to the major leagues was awesome. Then David Nilsson gets there, Graeme Lloyd gets there, Mark Ettles gets there and a bunch of Australians hitting the big leagues in late 80s, early 90s and it really kind of shone a light on baseball in Australia from an international perspective. So there was a lot more activity, a lot more players getting signed and then for me,

I guess the spotlight and the highlight of Australia meant that there was a lot of clubs looking at the opportunity at the moment and they're looking for the next Australian player coming out of the talent hotbed at the time of Australia and yeah, it was a pretty good prospect.

Speaker 2 (02:57)
It was a good time to be a 16 year old baseball player in Australia, especially a stud.

Speaker 1 (03:02)
Yeah,

that's it. Yeah, that's it. Well, you know, at the time I was, yeah, loving the game and, you know, pretty advanced for my age and I'd been around it for a long time. So, you know, if I probably reflect back and I did a little bit of scouting with the Tigers part-time, if I, you know, kind of look back at it, you know, probably, you know, advanced feel for the game and, you know, understanding of the game and, yeah, probably doing things on the field as a 16 year old, all quite impressive and, you know, from a...

athletic perspective, had some power, know, switch hit run a little bit, know, good arm and everything that they were kind of looking for. yeah, right place, right time and yeah, was something that I grew up dreaming of doing. So, chance for to sign with the Braves as a 16 year old was pretty cool.

Speaker 2 (03:46)
It's something that you grew up dreaming of doing. How did those dreams compare to what you walked into in your first spring training in the United States, or your first season in the low minors? How did that dream match up with what reality was?

Speaker 1 (04:02)
Yeah, look, I guess guess probably reframing when I grew up dreaming of wanting to do

Speaker 2 (04:08)
Right.

Speaker 1 (04:26)
I played a little bit of international baseball to go into a Brave system that had some of the top prospects coming through was a real step up. When you're 16, you kind of go in there with some expectations on yourself that are probably really unrealistic. But look, was great to be able to get over there and start my career. And I learned a lot. There were some great coaches that had some really good support early on and made some good friends. So it was probably a really good intro to what...

and everyone who'd been there with me since that time it started were all heading north to either Idaho Falls or Danville, Virginia. I was stuck in West Palm Beach and it was myself, Bruce Chen who ended up going on and having a great career in the big leagues and Andruw Jones. We were the three players that were kind of left over. We were three kind of young guys that had come in from international that they didn't think were ready for rookie ball, you know, under lights.

Speaker 2 (05:48)
But that sure makes for a long summer between extended out of that. That makes for a long grind for your first full season introduction to professional baseball.

Speaker 1 (05:58)
Yeah, it's really difficult. You know, it's that at the I think was a Raddison or Ramada out there West Palm Beach and it was a nice hotel, but you know, stuck in a hotel room for, you know, going on, seven months. They, they broke us out of there, I think, right, the back end of, you know, Danville season. So Andruw and myself went up to Danville, I want to say for the last month or six weeks of the season. So that was a really cool experience to be able to do that and, you know, play with some, you know, great guys on that team. Like Kevin Millwood was on that team and

it was that was a really cool experience to go to get up there and experience that in Danville But yeah, like me for a long summer and then the season got finished then we were back down there for instructional league. So yeah, I think I ended up leaving in late October or something like that. So a very big What do they say that baptism by fire?

Speaker 2 (06:47)
Yeah.

And then, so then you started that long march from there up through the ranks with the Braves and then later on with the Blue Jays and then 2004 happens and you, you finally get that debut. How did, that's a long time, 10 years in the minor leagues before you made your debut is a long time. What kept you going?

Speaker 1 (07:13)
I think that when I was a kid the opportunity to play in the big leagues was something that I really wanted to be able to do. As a young man heading over to 16 year old with unrealistic expectations of myself I thought it was probably going be a tad easier than it ended up being.

Yeah, look, disappointing. I worked hard, I had some injuries and all those kind of things, you know, like early on. And then when I got released and picked up by the Blue Jays, it's kind of a second lease of life. I kind of really truly feel that, you know, like I had a little bit more control of what was going to happen in my career and a little bit of an idea of how to really get the most out of my abilities. yeah, that was great. I'd spent some time there. And then, you know, to get to the

Twins

Yeah, that was a really good opportunity. you know, for me, I left the country wanting to be a Major Leaguer. And, you know, there was plenty of times where you want to kind of pack it in and go home. A lot of support from family and friends to be able to do it. But also that internal drive of, you know, wanting to make sure that I at least completed what I set out to do.

Speaker 2 (08:21)
And you did.

Speaker 1 (08:23)
Yeah, I feel fortunate that, you know, the Twins gave me an opportunity and I probably had the best year of my career in 2004 with Toronto and I was coming off the silver medal win with Team Australia at the Olympic Games and I thought I was a shoe in to be able to get a September call up and you know, kind of realised that dream and you know, Toronto were going through some changes internally and you know, really kind of adopting, you know, a Moneyball principle around one base percentage and all those kind of things. So that wasn't me and you know, obviously I wasn't part of their

their plans for the future so that didn't work out for me so the next year when I got picked up with the Twins again it was you another another chapter of my career and I got injured in spring training which probably didn't give me the best opportunity but having a really good season and to get called up in June of 2005 was something that

Yeah, it's kind of justification of sticking it out long enough to make that become a reality. So, fortunate to have gotten to the big leagues and enjoyed my brief time when I was there. It's nice to able look back and say that I was one of the 38 or 39 Australians who have played in the Major League.

Speaker 2 (09:28)
Okay, 39, ahead of that 38. Who is the 39? Who did I miss?

It must have been recent. I don't know

Speaker 1 (09:35)
more.

Yeah, so Jack O'Laughlin, I wanna say. Maybe last year, yeah, so, yeah, really quite new to it. So, but yeah, the numbers are always, you challenging. We've had, a guy named Kevin Jordan who played with the Phillies in the big leagues. He lot time in Australia and you know, some people count him as an Aussie. I think he would count himself as an Aussie in there. the number fluctuation. I, that the thing that I think that is amazing around Australian baseball and the growth of Australian baseball is that,

Speaker 2 (09:39)
okay, okay.

There you go.

Speaker 1 (10:06)
you that we aren't fixated on what that number is because and it's getting to the point now where it's yeah we've had we've had some guys in the big leagues right it's not as if yeah we've got 10 or 11 or whatever so we're really proud of it and the fact that we can't pinpoint

Speaker 2 (10:19)
Yeah, you don't really need to anymore.

Speaker 1 (10:22)
Yeah, we don't really need to anymore and hopefully things to come.

Speaker 2 (10:27)
He made that debut in June of 2005 and Your three weeks as an active major leaguer was, you performed.

Speaker 1 (10:37)
Yeah, look, It was good, enjoyable, and I was swinging the bat well in Rochester before I got called up. And I was provided some opportunities to be able to go up and contribute to the team. so, yeah, of relief of making it to the big leagues, excited about being there, and then the drive to kind of go, what do I need to do to give myself the best chance of staying here? So, a hit in every game that I played in.

Speaker 2 (11:06)
Gotta be some kind of record.

Speaker 1 (11:08)
Yeah, like it's um, yeah, so that was really cool. But, you know, fortunately, have been given the opportunity by Terry Ryan. And then when I got up there Ron Gardenhire as the manager to, you know, put me in some spots and, I swung the bat well and the better that I swung it more opportunities they gave me.

Speaker 2 (11:24)
And then you have the injury.

Speaker 1 (11:26)
Yeah, look, was, yeah, that was disappointing, obviously. Yeah, was heart wrenching at the moment, at that time. So, yeah, looked disappointing, but I look at it now and, you know, hindsight's 20-20. You know, I wish I had have played more time in the big leagues. Obviously, I think that everybody who probably has a big league career, you know, outside of those Hall of Famers, the 25 years that I've just had enough, you know, I wish they could have spent more time in the big leagues and enjoyed it and, you know, competed and performed and all those kind of things, but...

You know, like, it could have happened to me in May of 2005 in, you know, Norfolk, Virginia, as opposed to happening in...

Speaker 2 (12:04)
It could have

happened in 1996.

Speaker 1 (12:07)
Yeah, that's right. So fortunate that it happened at that time and I had the chance to be able to do it. But yeah, devastating at the time. I played a couple of years after that back in AAA. But by then I was married and...

huge support of what I wanted to do and you know I you know made a decision after 2007 that unless there was a real opportunity where I felt like I go back and play and had a real chance of playing in the big leagues then it was time for me to look to do something else and you know like as fate would have it you know no offers came forward from MLB clubs I went to an Olympic qualifier in March of 2008 and if we had a qualified then I was going to go

play in an independent league somewhere and make sure I was ready for the Beijing Olympics, my third Olympic games. it didn't eventually, we didn't qualify. So I went home and that was it. I haven't played baseball since.

Speaker 2 (13:01)
My two interests with this thing, first of all, grew up reading Baseball America and I always flipped to the back pages and the foreign leagues, international leagues were. And it didn't have a whole lot of information, but you had the leaderboard and it had names of guys that you recognize from the minor leagues in the United States and the big leagues playing in Japan, Korea, Australia, And I've always had an interest in international baseball.

To me, when they said professional baseball players in the Olympics, man, that was just the coolest thing. And then, of course, the World Baseball Classic has been invented since then. So I can't imagine that feel as professional baseball player playing for your country.

Speaker 1 (13:40)
Yeah, it's incredible. It's a different style of baseball. Every pitch matters, every at bat matters. It's almost like it's playoff baseball, right? You a different opponent every day. Sometimes you sometimes rely on...

and all these kind of things but when you're playing for your country it's a different level of pride and by virtue of pulling on a national team uniform, unlike professional baseball, you're out there trying to compete and help your team win but the uniform that you're wearing is irrelevant because they're paying the bills.

Speaker 2 (14:17)
As long as you're wearing a jersey.

Speaker 1 (14:20)
Yeah, you're wearing a jersey, as long as you're wearing a jersey, you're representing a team, get paid, that's what professional baseball's like. You like you get really attached to your team and you want to win and you  get that camaraderie. But when you pull on a national team uniform, like basically you're doing it for your country and you've got a bunch of colleagues that are doing what you're doing. So they're doing the same thing that I did. They got on a plane and they went and lived a difficult life playing the minor leagues and they're balancing family and friends and you know, to come together and have that common...

win for your country, it means a lot to people. I think that it's really great to see the evolution of international baseball. I think that LA 2028 will be amazing. We're doing what we can here in Australia to have baseball, softball and 2032. But like, yeah, the emergence of the World Baseball Classic the Premier 12, the way the fans get into that, the way it's being followed now.

commitment by superstars from around the world is what's going to really continue to drive that interest so you know for us to play in Tokyo in 2023 Ohtani is on you know Samurai Japan and know we're playing our national team is playing against Japan there's 43 million viewing audience in Japan

Speaker 2 (15:32)
That's amazing.

Speaker 1 (15:33)
huge

event that's followed really significantly and it's made better when guys like Ohtani are playing in it and Trout are committing to it and all these MLB superstars are actually taking time out of their preparation to go on being superstars in the big leagues to go on trying to do something amazing and special for their country. So it really helps the growth of baseball around the planet and it helps shine a light on just how amazing baseball can be.

Speaker 2 (16:01)
I got goosebumps. I'm already so excited about anything baseball in the Olympics and the World Baseball Classic. They just fed me how much momentum and growth there still is to be all way up to the 2030s. So that's exciting. Thank you for that. After you played professional baseball in United States, you played in Olympics you turned into coaching.

and you later became the general manager of Team Australia, correct?

Speaker 1 (16:34)
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (16:35)
And now

your current role is CEO of Baseball Australia. So tell me a little bit about what your job is and what you do and what your goals are for the growth of baseball in your country.

Speaker 1 (16:49)
Yeah, look, I feel really fortunate to be CEO of Baseball Australia and I grew up, you know, I've pretty much had a touch point at every level of the sport, which is a really big advantage for me. I've experienced great opportunities at local baseball. I've had great coaches.

people that have assisted me, I've played at major league events, I've done pretty much everything that a lot of people that are playing the game here want to do and want to experience. So I feel really fortunate that I'm leading the organisation. I've got a great board who are very supportive and we've got a really passionate baseball community here in Australia that really want to see great outcomes for it. But the core things that we do as an organisation...

is we try to increase our participation. So we've a little over 40,000 active playing members and we're trying to grow that at 5 % per year. So we're looking at ways that we can engage the community, tell our story differently as well. So we want to promote baseball and have it up there as a choice for young people that want to take up the game. We operate the ABL, we want to be the winter league choice for professional players who...

want to have a great development opportunity and a great opportunity to compete in a really unique league, And some of the stuff that comes along with that.

don't necessarily feel as a player is, you know, some of the governance around it, the marketing media, we started our own channel, basically 4 plus, so we have an app that's associated with it where all the baseball content is, pulled into, into kind of one location, so we're looking at ways we can broadcast things, we're looking at marketing media, and you know, how we can really kind of grow.

footprint of our sport here in Australia and like a huge element you know that comes in on what we do is we put national teams on the field so we want our national team to be really successful in international events and we want to kind of promote the amazing stories that happen for Australian baseball players who are doing things great internationally or know personnel whether it's an umpire who's been appointed to a tournament somewhere or a scorer who's scoring their first game of the under 12 you know World Cup

all the way through to some of the amazing things that our players are doing. So For Travis Bazanna to grow up as a young kid in Warunga to play his junior baseball at Ryde, to go through a program that's supported by Baseball Australia and Baseball New South Wales to play, a couple of junior national teams to be part of our high performance programs in going to the USA, to get an opportunity to get to college, to play on our under...

23 national team to play on our Premier 12 team and to be drafted as the number one pick in the MLB draft is something there.

Speaker 2 (19:31)
That really draws some attention.

Speaker 1 (19:32)
Yeah, So it's something that, you know, like our mainstream media here in Australia, we have a very crowded market, know, with football and AFL and rugby and cricket, so the market tends to be saturated with those sports. But yeah, Travis doing what he did.

I don't recall a time when people were talking about baseball as much as they did for him to do that and he's an excellent young man who has very very high expectations of himself and aspirations to do some incredible things in baseball and I have confidence that he'll be able to do that and the thing that's so refreshing and so amazing for us is that he continues to look at ways that he can utilise the interest that people are showing in him to

Australia and help us grow so we're very very fortunate to have him as our representative. One of our latest representatives and know the fact that he's so committed to you know seeing us be successful is something we're truly truly appreciative of.

Speaker 2 (20:37)
Like you

said, you're appreciative and you're fortunate is the words you use, but you've worked for this. You and your teams have earned this. It's not a fortune. You got lucky that this guy's talking about Australia. All your hard work you've put in over the last 30, 10 years has produced that. I just want to recognize you for that.

Speaker 1 (21:01)
appreciate that. takes a village to raise a child. It takes entire baseball community to raise a

Speaker 2 (21:10)
Yeah,

you guys did that. You should definitely show pride in that.

Speaker 1 (21:15)
Yeah, I'm fortunate to be sitting as the leader of the organization of a huge baseball community that are super passionate about it and they want to see it be great. They want to see our play be successful. So really, really fortunate to be in that position. And we've got so many people in the game, whether they're in paid roles or volunteer roles. We're a volunteer-based sport here in Australia. And we have hundreds of clubs out there that all have.

people volunteering their time to mark the lines and run a little canteen and make sure the players are getting uniforms and score and do all that other stuff. know, Trav was a beneficiary of probably hundreds of people that were volunteering his time, their time to be able to help him. He would game to the other 40,000 people that go out there and play our sport. it's really, really fortunate to be able to do it. It's really strong and passionate.

that we can continue to do great things that they celebrate.

Speaker 2 (22:12)
Well, Mr. Williams, thank you for your time. I know you're getting close to running out of time here. So I want to say I appreciate you for taking the time to talk to me today. If I have a little bit more time with you, I have two kind of standardized questions I like to ask the people that I talk to. One is...

Speaker 1 (22:29)
keep

going up, yeah like I said I'm driving at the minute.

Speaker 2 (22:37)
I'm hoping you get stuck in traffic. No, I'm just kidding. So my two standard questions as everybody you could call 16 year old, 15 year old Glenn Williams and give him some advice, baseball related advice, what could you tell a young man?

Speaker 1 (22:59)
is probably the one that I tell a lot of the young men when they're starting their careers that You know there's a lot of a lot of distraction a lot of noise a lot of you know things that you get caught up in but at the core of this the people that end up being great at playing baseball are the best at getting better

And if you can concentrate on just being really, really, really good at getting better, then you're going to maximise your potential, you're going to get the most out of your baseball career. And if a team continues to see you getting better, then they're going to continue to give you that opportunity. So I look back at myself and like I said, I had the expectations of being a 16 year old and I want to go and hit .300 and I want to do this and I want to do that.

I work really, really hard. I don't have any regrets about how I went about it or like I wasn't out there not giving a great effort. I gave it everything I had, but if I hadn't just mentally focused on just getting better and worrying about my own improvement as opposed to comparing myself statistically to my peers, I think that I would have been a lot better.

Speaker 2 (24:13)
I think that's good advice that probably translates to many career fields My second question I have is kind of a twist on that. If you could call up Glenn Williams, we'll say in 2005, 6, and 7, and give that young man some advice on what to expect for...

you know, ending your playing career and moving on to the next phase. What advice would you give that young man?

Speaker 1 (24:39)
Look, probably the advice, the best advice I got was I received it in 2007 from a really good friend of mine and I was living with him and his family in Rochester. So John Feldman is someone who I lived with for three years there with he and his family and we remained close friends, my wife and I were there. So I recall it was kind of right towards the end of my career.

you know, wise, you know, I was kind of confiding in people who were playing golf.

you what's next, then, you know, like, if you're an athlete and that's all you've known, then, you know, like, the coming to an end can be, you know, like really daunting. And, you know, the advice that he gave me or the statement that he actually said was,

Speaker 2 (25:22)
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (25:30)
you baseball is what you do it's not who you are and you just have to realize that you know if you're not doing baseball anymore it doesn't necessarily mean that you can't do something else so you don't know what's going to be around the corner but you know ultimately you know if you approach

Approach what it is next with the same way that you've approached, you your baseball career then you know, like there's endless possibilities So rather than looking at it as hey, I'm losing something that's you I may never replace it's almost like well, you know that chapter your life might be over with but you know, there's so much in front of you and look its some You know something that your baseball career ends and you know, like for me, I don't I don't miss playing at all I haven't you know what mean? Like had the itch to

I could have come home and played in the ABL think I was maybe 33 when the ABL first kicked off again here in Australia. So I could have played in the ABL and I could have gone and competed but I chose not to. I managed the team the first year of the ABL in Sydney.

you do miss is the camaraderie and the competitive spirit, like getting out there and competing every day. yeah, they're the two things that I miss most about my playing career. yeah, it good advice. Baseball is what you do, it's not who you are. yeah, I've been really fortunate to have been in baseball roles since my retirement. And yeah, like...

Baseball stuff is good and I enjoy doing that. The other stuff is really challenging but that's what makes it exciting every day. And being around people that you learn from is pretty cool as well.

Speaker 2 (27:16)
It's been a great conversation. In my opinion, you've had two separate very successful careers in that. I have had more interest talking to you than your average Hall of Famer who, like you said, played 20 years, hung them up. And that's the story. And I just appreciated this a lot. Mr. Williams, if you ever need anything, anything I can ever do for you.

Thank you.

Speaker 1 (27:41)
Yeah,

nice to to you and yeah, good to be able to reminisce around old stories and all of those kind of things.