Deeble estimated that there are 75,000 registered baseball players in Australia, which is less than 0.4 percent of the population. In the United States, 42 million play organized baseball - a little more than 13 percent of the population.
Now that the brothers are part of a much more competitive pool, they know they’ve got a ways to go. Boss and Moko currently play for the short-season Single A Lowell Spinners.
And though they may receive more attention for their singing skills, video game prowess, and tribal chants, they’re also pretty good hitters with their eyes on the big leagues.
Vocation plans Just 29 Australians have played an inning or more of major league baseball.
Three years ago, Boss and Moko couldn’t imagine being Nos. 30 and 31. Their father, Joe, didn’t think his sons had a future in baseball, either.
Joe knew coal mining; he’d worked below the earth’s surface for two decades. His wife, Seikura, worked for a cleaning company.
In early May 2008, Joe sat his sons down to talk about their futures.
“I said, ‘Look boys, you’re at an age now when you have to start thinking about your career and maybe doing an apprenticeship of some type, whether it be a boilermaker apprenticeship or an electrical apprenticeship,’ ’’ Joe said during a Skype interview.
Boss was considering becoming a professional bike racer. He’d finished sixth in the 2003 BMX world championships, and had always considered going pro by age 17.
Moko told his father he could see himself as an electrician or carpenter.
Two weeks and a whirlwind later, it didn’t matter.
After Boss played in the National Schoolboys Championship in Lismore in 2008, Deeble approached him. Deeble, who scouts Australia and New Zealand for the Sox, had been tracking Boss throughout his teenage years, watching him develop into a strong, powerful hitter - despite his interests in BMX and rugby.
After the championship, Deeble set up a workout. Soon after, Boss signed with the Red Sox as an international free agent.
