Thousands of people have played at least one Major League Baseball (MLB) game - 34 have been Australian.
One would have guessed that a country with such great ability at cricket would be able to succeed at baseball.
Of the 34 Aussies, two have suited up for the Arizona Diamondbacks in a MLB game - Trent Oeltjen and Ryan Rowland-Smith.
Trent Oeltjen
Trent Oeltjen, born in Sydney, was an outfielder for the Arizona Diamondbacks from 2008-2009 and 2014 (in the minor league).
Oeltjen started his career with the Minnesota Twins organization, signing with the team at the age of 18 in 2001. He was very successful in his time in the minors batting at .300 in the AA, culminating in being picked for the World team in the 2006 All-Star Futures Game.
He was one of the top performers at the 2007 Baseball World Cup hitting at a .523/.580/.614 clip.
In 2008, Trent signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks where he would go onto hit .317/.357/.466 for the Tucson Sidewinders.
On 6 August 2009, Oeltjen was called up to the majors following an injury to Justin Upton. Playing left field, Oeltjen went 2-6 with 1 HR and 2 SB. He ended up playing in 24 games that season finishing with a .243/.250/.457 clip and 3 home runs (all coming in his first 20 at-bats).
After a four-hit outing on 11 August, he became the fifth player in the “expansion era” since 1961 to have twelve hits in the first five MLB games played. Output fell after that point, only collecting five more hits in his remaining 46 plate appearances.
On 31 March 2014, after stints with Milwaukee and Los Angeles, Oeltjen return to Arizona on a minor league contract. He would play some games for the Reno Aces before being released on 19 May 2014 returning to Australia.
In full, Oeltjen played 24 games for the Arizona Diamondbacks, naturally setting every hitting record for an Australian Diamondback, as the only position player to suit up for Arizona.
Ryan Rowland-Smith
Ryan Rowland-Smith, also born in Sydney, was a left-handed pitcher for the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2014.
Rowland-Smith started his career with the Seattle Mariners organization in 2000 as an 18-year-old spending the better part of the decade in the Seattle minor league system. He would be up and down in the majors for Seattle from 2007-2010.
On 5 November 2013, Rowland-Smith signed a minor league contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks and was able to make the opening day roster.
In his first two appearances for Arizona (against San Francisco on the 2nd and 3rd of April, 2014), Rowland-Smith pitched an inning in each game letting up no runs.
This positive start did not last long as he let up 4 earned runs in his next four games. This would see the end of his time with the Dbacks – electing to become a free agent shortly after on the 11th of April.
In total, he made six appearances for Arizona in relief with a 4.91 ERA, 1.5 WHIP and 9 strikeouts in 7.1 innings pitched.
He holds the honour as the only Australian to ever pitch for the Diamondbacks.