Neil Page

Neil Philip Page (born 17 January 1944) is an Australian former baseball player. A left-hand starting pitcher, he regularly played for Australia from 1964 until 1977.^[1]

Career

Page was born in Adelaide, the son of Roy Page, a well-known local baseball identity.^[2] As a junior, Page grew up playing for the Glenelg Tigers and Adelaide Angels baseball clubs, before transferring, in 1969, to the Goodwood Indians baseball club in the South Australian Baseball League (SABL).^[3] Page attended Adelaide Boys High School from February 1956 to 1960.^[4]

On 1 February 1966, Page became the first modern Australian player to sign a professional contract with a Major League Baseball organisation, the Cincinnati Reds.^[1][2][3] He remained with the organisation until 16 October 1967, but was released following an arm injury.^[5] Page won the Helms Award in 1969, regarded as Australian Baseball's most prestigious award; and is judged based on a players performance in National Claxton Shield competition.^[6] He also won the Capps Medal in 1974, for the "best and fairest" player during the regular SABL season (i.e. not including finals matches) as decided upon by umpires votes.^[2] Page played for South Australia at 8 Claxton Shields (1964, 1965, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1973 & 1974) and Western Australia at 3 Claxton Shields (1975, 1976 & 1977).^[1] In 1977, Page won the President's Medal, for the Most Valuable Player in the West Australian Baseball League.^[3]

On 16 March 1972, Page was involved in one of the greatest games in Australian baseball history.^[1] Under lights at Norwood Oval, in the 1971/72 SABL Grand final between the Goodwood Indians and Port Adelaide Magpies, Page pitched all 19 innings (21 strikeouts, 9 hits & 1 walk), only to lose the game 4 – 2.^[7]

In the book, A History of Australian Baseball: Time and Game, Page is described as "one of the greatest pitchers Australia has ever produced".^[2] At the 2000 Millennium Sports Award recognising achievements in Australian sport, Page won the Australian Sports Medal for "45 years involvement in Baseball as player and coach, many individual achievements".^[8] In 2005, Page was an inaugural inductee into the Baseball Australia Hall of Fame.^[9] At the 2009 Baseball Australia Diamond Awards, Page was named as a starting pitcher to the 75th Diamond Anniversary Claxton Shield All Stars team.^[10]