Baseball star Trent Oeltjen passing on professional experience
Oeltjen has played for the Arizona Diamondbacks, the LA Dodgers, plays for the Sydney Blue Sox and now the Penrith Baseball club.
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Trent Oeltjen has been everywhere man and is now looking to share some of his 14 years of professional baseball experience with the Penrith Baseball Club.
The 31-year-old outfielder made his Major League Baseball debut in 2009 for the Arizona Diamondbacks, played for the LA Dodgers and won a silver medal at the Olympics with the Australian team in 2004.
“I started playing baseball at about five years. My dad’s actually American so he first got me into the sport,” Oeltjen said.
“I made my first state team as under-14s. Then from that I made my first Australian team when I was 16 and then I signed professionally when I was 17 and left as soon as I finished high school.”
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Oeltjen has been playing for the Sydney Blue Sox in the Australian Baseball League during the American off season and said he loved how much the sport had grown.
“It’s been an amazing journey and now I take pride in coming back and helping out other juniors and friends, and just having fun in Australia and helping grow the game,” he said.
“Some of my favourite times playing baseball have been representing my country. It’s something that as a kid you always look forward to and it’s always fun coming back to play.”
Through baseball, Oeltjen has been able to travel all over the world including Mexico, Taiwan, Canada and more, but said playing in MLB ranked at the top of his experiences.
“Everyone is the best from where they came from and the cream sort of rises to the top,” he said.
“As you move up through the minor league ranks there are less and less spots and then when you finally get to breaking into the major leagues it’s quite amazing.”
Having played with Penrith head coach Shane Summerford in the early days Oeltjen seized the chance to join the Panthers and help the club grow.
“Joining the Penrith club so far it’s been absolutely amazing. Shane’s a good mate of mine,” he said.
“I approached him if I could come out and if there was any way I could help out the club I would love to and get kids into the game.
“I played my first game against Cronulla and it was a great turnout. There’s no doubt in my mind we will be premiers this year for sure.”
HOLIDAY CAMPS
■ Oeltjen and other Penrith and Blue Sox players will be running holiday camps
■ December 22-23 and January 19-21
■ Visit Penrith Baseball website or Facebook page
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