Meet Pitcher Adam Bright

Tulsa left-handed pitcher Adam Bright, from Melbourne, Australia, has been a key performer this year out of the Drillers' bullpen. Bright has represented Australia in both World Baseball Classics, and was a Texas League All-Star last year for the Drillers.

Q: When some people think of Australians they think of Crocodile Dundee. Do people ask you about any of that?

A: Not so much anymore. Maybe my first year. I've been around the same guys for so long, you know, it just doesn't really come up anymore.

Q: Does anyone else ask you any weird questions?

A: No, not really. I get a lot of 'whats,' that's about it. I have to repeat my orders at restaurants. I have to repeat that sort of thing or I get the wrong the stuff.

Q: So they don't expect the accent?

A: No. I filled in a credit card resume or whatever you call it, an application. When I actually went back on there to check, I said the number eight and it was an "H."

Q: What's the hardest part about being this far from Australia?

A: The hardest part, I'd say, probably the time difference. Just trying to communicate with my girlfriend back home. I think it might be nine hours ahead the next day. Put an a.m. in front of the p.m.

This morning she called and it was 9:30. I was just waking up, and she was just going to bed at 1:00 in the morning. The time difference is tough, but other than that I've become accustomed to being away.

Q: How'd you go about getting started playing baseball?

A: My mother actually put me into T-ball when I was five. My father was a Cricketer. I think that's the road I probably would've headed, but Cricket started at twelve and mom wanted to get me into something earlier, so T-ball was five and I was in baseball by seven. I had a natural gift. I stuck with it.

Q: Do you have any friends that played baseball back home?

A: Yeah, a lot of my best friends back home that I've grew up with. Most of my best friends actually were on the junior Australian team. We were 11 and went to Japan. A lot of those guys have gone on to keep playing.

Q: What about Cricket? Did any of your childhood friends go on to play Cricket?

A: That's the road a lot of people go down. There's the Cricket and the Australian Rules Football. I was always the sporty guy at school but for the wrong reason. For playing a different sport. My father played professional Cricket for Australia for years. My younger brother, who's now 16, he's heading down a pretty good career path for Cricket.

Q: What's it like to play in the World Baseball Classic?

A: Well, I've played in both World Baseball Classics so far. My first experience was probably better, because you can go either way really.

We were in Orlando, Florida so I was a lot more confident. But, we had a weaker team that was a bunch of A-ball players. Three years later we've progressed and we've now got Major League, Triple A and Double A players, so our team's got a lot stronger.

City-wise we were in Mexico City and it was a bit rough. We didn't leave the hotel. We just stayed there. We beat Mexico the first night, which almost caused a riot. They were throwing stuff at us on the field. There were fans from the Australian Embassy in the stands holding a flag and they were trapped in the stadium getting beer pelted at them and stuff. It was not a safe place for us to be.

Q: What did it do for baseball when Australia won the silver medal in the 2004 Olympics?

A: I was actually just too young for that team. I wasn't quite on it yet. But that definitely opened up the world's eyes for Australian baseball. They realized that we can play. I didn't debut until 2005 in Holland, so I just missed out.