Had the pleasure of attending the Moneyball premiere at Sylvia Park last Wednesday night and must say what a thouroughly enjoyable evening it was.

The movie itself, in my opinion, was excellent and it was great to get an insight into how a franchise like Oakland is run.

While the A`s are yet to win it all under the moneyball regime it is hard to argue with their performances under Billy Beane considering their fianacial restraints. It also interesting that the A`s this off season commited $30 million to an unproven (in MLB) outfielder over the next four seasons - either Beane is extremely confident that Yoenis Cespedes will be a success or maybe we are seeing a bit more payroll flexibillity for the A`s

Where `Moneyball` will rank in terms of all time greatest baseball movie is for people far more qualified than me to judge but I will certainly be back to check it out again in the very near future.

Pitchers & catchers report

Over the weekend the spring training facillities in Florida and Arizona sprung into life as pitchers and catchers (and a few hitters) began to report for spring training.

This time of year is always an exciting one for a baseball fan. All 30 teams begin equally and all will talk up their chances for the upcoming season. Obviously most will fall away and come October there can be only one winner, but the optimism and anticpation that spring training brings makes this one of my favourites times of the year

One of the big off season storylines looks set to come to an end with the announcment that Cuban outfielder Yoenis Cespedes has signed a four year, $36 million deal with the Oakland A`s.

Speculation has been rampant all winter as to where Cespedes would end up, how much for and ultimately what sort of role he is ready to play at the Major League level.

The main reason for me writing about this is the person who has signed Cespedes is As general manager Billy Beane, the subject of the `Moneyball` movie which premiere`s tomorrow night at Sylvia Park in Auckland.

Having seen the trailers I personally cannot wait to see the movie, being a Yankees fan myself it`s hard to imagine how hard Beane must work to keep his A`s side competitive year upon year given the fianancial restraints he has and I`m sure the movie itself will be outstanding.

Hello and welcome the first ever entry in the DIAMONDBLACK DIALOGUE blog.

In the days, weeks, months and years ahead we will be providing up to date information on all the goings on in Baseball New Zealand and around the world.

About the author:

My name is Ian West and I have been a sports journalist for six years mainly covering cricket in different parts of the world. I have been a huge baseball fan since the turn of the century and when I recently moved from to Auckland from the UK I contacted Ryan Flynn volunteering my services to baseball in this great country and we are.

First and foremost I am a baseball fan. I make no claims to be an expert and this is my first journey into Baseball journalism but one thing I dont lack is passion for the sport and hopefully that will be for everyone to see in my writing.

About the blog:

This will also be an interactive blog. While I am still getting to know the ins and outs of Baseball in this country I will gladly recieve any pieces of information that people out there feel worthy of a mention whether it be from International level down to club/junior baseball.

Over the next few days I will begin add various interviews and news articles to the blog, hopefully this can be the start of something very special and I look forward to hearing from as many of you from the Baseball New Zealand community as possible.

Ian West