Dave Nilsson pushing Team Australia hard ahead of World Baseball Classic

There have not been many signs of spring at Fuchu City Stadium recently. Even with the sun shining and blue skies overhead, the mornings are cool. The tallest trees that line the stadium beyond the outfield wall are still mostly barren, with their leaves and blossoms weeks away. The lone telltale sign of spring’s approach is the sound of baseball around the ballpark as the Australian national team practices for the World Baseball Classic.

While many of their countrymen are enjoying much warmer weather back home, Australia’s best baseball players are spending their days at this modest venue in western Tokyo. The WBC begins on March 9 at Tokyo Dome, and right now the Australians are in “work mode,” according to manager Dave “Dingo” Nilsson. The former Chunichi Dragons player said a recent cold snap had made the conditions a little tougher on the players — a happy coincidence that fit right in with his plans to brace them for what they will face during the tournament.

“Super cold,” Nilsson told The Japan Times in the dugout during practice on Tuesday. “They played a doubleheader the other day and it was under 4 degrees. There’s different ways you prepare. That developed a lot of resilience, it developed a lot of mental toughness. When you’re pitching in the Tokyo Dome against Korea or Japan, it takes a degree of mental toughness and mental resilience. So we took a lot out of that.”