About Us

Sydney Uni Baseball Club (SUBC) was established in 1904- a club of great history in Australian baseball. 

Sydney Uni Baseball Club is a part of one of the most prestigious sporting organisations in Australia, Sydney University Sport and Fitness, which dates back to 1852. Sydney Uni Sport and Fitness has produced more Australian representatives and won more major competitions than any other uni sporting organisation. Consequently, it continues to be an influential body in the sporting domain. 

Joining The Club

SUBC has competitive teams during the winter season, with trials each year around the start of the uni semester in March, and finishing in August. The club enters teams in the Sydney Winter Baseball League, which is the highest calibre competition in the state for the winter season. The club also enters a development team into the Pacific Coast Baseball League.

The club is always looking for new players of all ages and ability, and is open to members of the public as well as those affiliated with the University. For students playing at a high level, there are opportunities to be apart of the Elite Athlete Program, which includes financial and non-financial incentives. Info here.

If you are interested in playing, please follow our social media pages for regular updates about upcoming events (facebook, instagram), or contact us to express your interest. 

Why "Cynics"?

For most of our existence, the Club simply went by the moniker "University". However a change was involuntarily enforced by the powers that be, soon after UNSW's entry to the competition.

According to '100 Years of Sydney University Baseball Club', by our historian Huw McKay:

Regular problems with playing numbers, and occasional administrative laxity, continually drew the ire of the SWBL in the late 1980s… One League meeting saw the University's lack of mascot or totem as a point of debate. With UNSW on board, "University" was not felt to be distinctive enough... the Club needed to come up with a mascot to appease the League, if only temporarily.

The brains trust - Richard de Carvalho, Phil Garrett, David Goonesena and others - took the challenge on board. Repairing to the bar at the Petersham RSL, they bent their combined intellect to the problem and came away with a masterful solution. Henceforward, University would be the "Cynics".

Armed with a lengthy oratory (similar to the Wikipedia extract below):

...the Club's delegates arrived at the next SWBL meeting to not only table this choice, but to defend it to the death. Thankfully things never got this far. The Club announced its intention, and the room went silent. The delegation began their fastidiously prepared defence, with passion in their voices and the cold light of fanaticism in their eyes. And then a voice was heard from the back - "Just let 'em have it". The motion was duly massed into the minutes and the Cynics were official.

Recall that the Petersham "Petes", Waverley "Waves", Lane Cove "Coves" and the Marrickville "Marricks" were the contemporary benchmark.

Origins of 'Cynic'

Cynicism is a school of Ancient Greek philosophy as practiced by the Cynics. For the Cynics, the purpose of life was to live in virtue, in agreement with nature. As reasoning creatures, people could gain happiness by rigorous training and by living in a way which was natural for themselves, rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, sex and fame. Instead, they were to lead a simple life free from all possessions.

The name Cynic derives from Ancient Greek (kynikos), meaning "dog-like". It seems certain, that the word dog was also thrown at the first Cynics as an insult for their shameless rejection of conventional manners, and their decision to live on the streets. Later Cynics also sought to turn the word to their advantage, as a later commentator explained:

There are four reasons why the Cynics are so named. First because of the indifference of their way of life, for they make a cult of indifference and, like dogs, eat and make love in public, go barefoot, and sleep in tubs and at crossroads. The second reason is that the dog is a shameless animal, and they make a cult of shamelessness, not as being beneath modesty, but as superior to it. The third reason is that the dog is a good guard, and they guard the tenets of their philosophy. The fourth reason is that the dog is a discriminating animal which can distinguish between its friends and enemies. So do they recognize as friends those who are suited to philosophy, and receive them kindly, while those unfitted they drive away, like dogs, by barking at them.