Saturday 10 July was a special day in DBA baseball history with three generations of the Hough family taking to the field in the Pakenham Pumas and Dandenong Angels C2 game.
Graham, Travis and Liam Hough are local baseball royalty, between the three of them they have about 93 years of baseball playing history – even higher if you take into actual seasons as baseball is played in both summer and winter.
Graham Hough began playing in 1961 at Brighton Tech and at the Ormond baseball Club for both the under 16’s and the senior’s teams. He then moved to Moorabbin and then onto Lyndale baseball Club in 1978. Lyndale became Dandenong Valley (which folded in 1994) and so Graham ended up at the Dandenong Angels.
During his time playing baseball he has played in at least 14 premierships and has multiple batting and other club awards and is a much loved member of the Angels club.
Travis began playing junior baseball at eight years of age for Lyndale and followed his dad to Dandenong. After playing many years for the Dandenong firsts, he had moved into the Pakenham area and dropped down to watch a Pumas game in 2009. The team weren’t going too well but were still enjoying themselves and when Trav found out that they hadn’t won a game for two years he decided to see if they’d like a new player. This led to him becoming the club coach for the next seven seasons. He’s amassed eight flags, including six as coach during his time at Pakenham. Travis has been a long-time committee member and is the current vice president, grounds manager and coach of the under 16’s team. His wife Katie has been canteen manager and past treasurer for a number of years, keeping the family all involved.
Liam started playing Tee Ball when he was six and has progressed through the junior ranks and winning two junior premierships along the way in under 12’s and Little League. Saturday was Liam’s 14th birthday and therefore marked the day that he was eligible under DBA rules to play seniors. It just so happened that the team that Pakenham C2 were up against was Granddad Graham’s team.
You can also add into the fact that Travis’ brother Jarrod has also played baseball for many years and was managing the Dandenong B2 team at the Toomuc Reserve on Saturday. Sister Jade tops off the family pedigree having represented Victoria for 11 years and Australia for the past eight years in international baseball and is also a Puma premiership player. Mum Janet has been a consistent throughout the years as a familiar face around the various clubs as team scorer, some weeks scoring five games in a weekend across juniors and seniors.
There is still a lot of baseball left to be played for all members of the family, we look forward to a lot more games of family tradition.
