Page 449 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 16 February 2016
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Brad started playing for Tuggeranong Vikings Baseball Club when he was 10 years old. He then played with the Kambah Eagles for two years, and since leaving the Eagles has been playing with the Weston Creek Indians, for the last five or six years.
There is a strong sports pedigree in his family. His father, Jim Inglis, was a promising AFL football player and coach. His mother was well known locally for her pitching ability in softball.
Madam Deputy Speaker, please allow me to take a few moments to outline Brad’s career to this stage. He was selected to represent Australia versus New Zealand in the 2015 season, and this year represented Australia against the Canadians. Brad has played in the national play-offs twice, and has thrown more strikeouts of any player there. In 2015 he threw 22 strikeouts, and he threw 24 this year. The closest person to that was at only 18 strikeouts. He has been selected twice to train at the Australian academy for baseball, and was selected to tour the United States with the world boys team—the world boys team, members—in 2013; he toured through San Francisco and other parts of California and played against teams from Mexico as well as Korea.
Brad has built himself a reputation in Australia as “the strikeout pitcher”. Perhaps we should call him the strikeout king. As an 18-year-old, he has already had a 138 to 141 kilometre per hour pitching speed range, well on par with, and in some cases above, average Major League Baseball standards.
It was obvious why Boston liked his ability. It was that ability to throw a fast and strong curve ball with good spin and his skill on a change-up. It is therefore not a surprise that, apart from the Boston Red Sox, Brad also had offers from the New York Yankees, the Cincinnati Reds and the Detroit Tigers.
Brad will leave Australia to go to summer training in March and will be stationed at Fort Myers in Florida, where he will play some 56 games and perfect his throwing technique. He has expressed his ultimate career aspiration as making it in the major league and wearing the green and gold to represent Australia in the 2020 Olympic Games.
As fellow Canberrans, it is only fitting that we all should give Brad a fitting send-off next month and cheer him on his journeyman career to make it in the big leagues. It is also worth noting that Babe Ruth had his initial start with the Red Sox. Best of luck, mate. Good luck, and bring home a title.
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
MRS DUNNE (Ginninderra) (4.33): On the cusp of the new year this year, several hundred young adults from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints used world-class facilities at the AIS for their annual convention. A similar convention happened at Monash University in Melbourne, with more than 700 attending that venue. These annual conventions draw young adults together from around the country to grow spiritually and learn life skills from experts, both religious and secular. This was the first time that one of these seminars has been held in our nation’s capital.
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