BANGOR, Maine — John Key’s major job challenges these days aren’t much different from those of every other world leader.
“It’s the economy, the global impact of the economy,” said Key, the prime minister of New Zealand. “We’re just coming through the recession like everyone else.”
But for a few days this week, at least some of Key’s concentration — and his physical presence — is a world away, at Mansfield Stadium, where his 17-year-old son Max is an outfielder for the Bayside Westhaven Little League team of Auckland, New Zealand, that is playing in the 2012 Senior League World Series.
“It’s huge,” said Key Sunday night moments before the New Zealand team’s first game of pool play against U.S. Southwest champion West University Little League of Houston, Texas. “You feel immensely proud of your children and you realize they’re growing up and defining their lots and doing wonderful things.”
The 51-year-old Key has served as prime minister of the island nation of 4.4 million located in the southwestern Pacific Ocean some 900 miles east of Australia since 2008. It’s a job that leaves him little time to follow the pursuits of his son or daughter Stephie.
“I’ve been prime minister for four years, and it’s really 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, so there are a lot of things I just can’t go to and can’t see,” he said.
But once Max Key and his Bayside Westhaven teammates won the Asia-Pacific SLWS qualifying tournament in Guam last month, his father the prime minister pledged to join him in Bangor.
“I couldn’t go [to Guam],” said Key, who has a background in investment banking and was a member of the Foreign Exchange Committee of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1999 to 2001 before returning to his native New Zealand to pursue a political career. “In fact, I’ve been hugely busy, but I promised him if they got to the World Series I’d come, so I’m keeping my word and I’m here.
“I saw him play in Hong Kong once, I literally flew up for the day when he was on the Little League side, but this is the first time I’ve taken a week off to go and see him play.”
Key said the fact his son’s team — the first from New Zealand to qualify for a World Series at any level — has reached the SLWS is big news back home, and it may spur additional growth in a sport that, while lagging far behind such local staples as rugby and cricket, is gaining momentum.
“You’re apt to see a whole lot of players willing to join the sport and participate,” he said, “because we always see that when we see a New Zealand team doing well, whether it’s basketball or whatever it might be.”
Key adds that anyone anticipating an instant baseball boom in New Zealand may have to be patient.
“It’s an emerging sport, so it’s quite small but growing reasonably rapidly,” said Key. “Softball’s been the predominant ball sport along with cricket. Softball’s a sport we adopted in the ’50s and now baseball’s really starting to take over, so you see a merging of softball players starting to play baseball and I think over time there’s a chance baseball might be a much bigger sport relative to softball in New Zealand.
“But competing with big sports like rugby I think is a long way down the road.”
Still, Key said the last few years have seen an increased amount of investment in New Zealand baseball, with more infrastructure and bigger diamonds being built to complement an increased knowledge base in the sport coming in part from the United States.
Baseball also is attracting more government support, he said.
“Historically it’s been based on how big the sport is, so obviously a game like rugby gets a massive amount of funding in New Zealand while a lot of the smaller sports have struggled,” said Key, whose own athletic background was in squash and rugby but now is centered on golf. “We’ve been putting a lot more money into sport as a government over the last four years, and we’ve really been trying to encourage some of the newer sports.”
One of those sports newer to New Zealand is baseball, which Max Key discovered while watching American major leaguers play on television.
His dad is glad he did.
“He was probably about 10 and he came into the kitchen and said, ‘I want to play baseball,’” said Key. “He’s had great experiences. He’s been to Guam, he’s been to Taiwan and now to Maine, so he’s had a great chance to see the world and be part of the New Zealand team.”
Awesome! Welcome!
Very nice story.
It’s not a nice story. It’s a story about a “‘leader” who feels family holidays are more important than state duties.
Nice story. Questional timing.
With all the wack jobs running around these day, would it have cost the BDN bragging rights to hold this story until after the Prime Minister has left Bangor?
While we locals tend to leave celebrities, like Steven King, alone… Key is an awfully attractive target for someone looking for fame.
Speaking from New Zealand, the only “Big News” about this baseball competition in New Zealand was the fact our Prime Minister missed a memorial service for 2 fallen soldiers. Although he has handled it correctly and I believe he made the right choice.
yes you are absolutely correct – it only made the news here because john key decided to miss full military funerals of two new zealand soldiers KIA in afghanistan in favour of attending his boys game for the whole week. that’s a typical john key right there putting spin (i.e. lying) that it’s a huge news…
Less than 4000 people in New Zealand play baseball. Nobody here has any interest in a team of teenagers from a small school playing in a tournament in the US. Nor does anybody care what the children of politicians get up to.
As mentioned by others, the only reason it was in the news was because two New Zealand soldiers were killed fighting in Afghanistan. Rather than attend their funerals, Mr Key, our most senior elected official and head of the Government, chose to go on a family holiday.
The fact that the man is telling people in the US that a little league baseball tournament is big news in New Zealand shows just how sleazy and manipulative he is.
Nice that he kept “a promise” to his son – but he can see his son on many more occassions – what can never be repeated is a funeral service put on for our Prime Minister to attend in honour of our fallen soldiers in Afghanistan. Let us never forget that as New Zealands Prime Minister, Key holds the highest rank and it was his signature that signed the death warrants for our boys – in that it was he who committed our military to New Zealands activities in Afghanistan. There are those who say. “Well they (these young boys and others) signed on to do military service knowing the possible outcomes” – be that as it may but it was Key and his National Government that deployed them – in a conflict that everyday looks to all intents and purposes – to be a lost cause – what a waste of a signature and what an even bigger waste of young men
Nice that he kept “a promise” to his son – but he can see his son on many more occassions – what can never be repeated is a funeral service put on for our Prime Minister to attend in honour of our fallen soldiers in Afghanistan. Let us never forget that as New Zealands Prime Minister, Key holds the highest rank and it was his signature that signed the death warrants for our boys – in that it was he who committed our military to New Zealands activities in Afghanistan. There are those who say. “Well they (these young boys and others) signed on to do military service knowing the possible outcomes” – be that as it may but it was Key and his National Government that deployed them – in a conflict that everyday looks to all intents and purposes – to be a lost cause – what a waste of a signature and what an even bigger waste of young men
Big News? yeah darn right it is….only because many NZ Citizens are upset and annoyed by his absenteeism at the returning of the bodies of two of our young soldiers from Afghanistan and their funerals to follow….thats the only part of it being big news. Then again if one of those fallen soldier boys was a son of mine, I would tell him to take a hike and leave anyway… dont approve of liars, especially those that have no conscience….
What is big news back in New Zealand is not anything to do with baseball; the game isn’t even a small speck on the countries sporting radar.
This is what the big news back here is.
Two young Kiwi soldiers were killed in action in Afghanistan recently where they served at the behest of the New Zealand Government of Prime Minister Key. Instead of doing his duty to these two men and to the country of his birth Mr. Key chose to blame decisions by the Hungarian military for this tragic event and then skipped off to Bangor ME to watch his son play little league baseball.
By his almost insufferable and dishonorable behaviour, PM Key has offered these soldiers and their families and the ones who loved them a discount on the value of the lives of the two Kiwi soldiers and the ultimate sacrifice they’ve made in playing their part in the War on Terror. Mr. Key’s previously unimaginable slight is an action that no fair minded individual would ever have expected of a Prime Minister. Most Americans would never tolerate and would never be expected to endure such appalling behaviour in any elected representative.
When an individual such as Mr. Key aspires to high office the job goes with certain obligations that transcend that of his family who may have sacrificed much, mostly family time together, for this PM’s political ambitions to succeed. However, none of his families sacrifices included dying while serving their country. The PM’s discarding of his obligation to the soldiers who were killed, the New Zealand military and the people of our country demonstrates the shallow behaviour of a sniveling bureaucrat rather than that of a man who fills the highest elected office in our land.
Yeah the Prick sent New Zealand soldiers to Afghanistan with warrants he signed off in 2009/2010 for them to be able to engage and possibly be killed. Two soldiers were killed recently and he couldn’t be bothered going to the soldiers funerals on Saturday 11th August 2012. You only get one chance to attend a funeral, you can watch your son play ball anytime. – Duty Meanwhile New Zealanders are doing the right thing. Monday 20th August we learn that another 3 more soldiers have died last week. Will PinoKeyo attend their funerals? 21st August 2012 – Corporal Luke Tamatea, 31, from Kawarau killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan at the weekend criticised the Prime Minister for not attending the funerals of two colleagues killed in an attack in the same region just weeks earlier..http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/7484099/Slain-soldier-remembered-in-Auckland
The line (lie-ne?) that after sweating out a 24/7 job 365 days of the year he needs a little time with his family would have more traction if he had spent less than a quarter of his premiership on holiday in Hawai’i.
the sport max key plays gets extra government funding. other children in new zealand are walking to school in flip-flops with no breakfast. in the winter. this illusrates this “man” and his government’s attitude. please “don’t believe the hype”
the
sport max key plays gets extra government funding. other children in
new zealand are walking to school in flip-flops with no breakfast. in
the winter. this illusrates this “man” and his government’s attitude.
please “don’t believe the hype”
Dear America.
The only big news in relation to this story is that lame excuse we unfortunately have to call a Prime Minister. His ego is what I am referring to if he thinks a bleeding heart story about a promise will over shadow the damage, his refusing to delay his trip by even one day has caused here in New Zealand. We recently lost two of our soldiers and had others injured in Afghanistan when they went to the aid of some locals. He could not even be bothered attending their funeral which to me shows a lack of honour and compassion. In America the death of two and the injury of six more might not mean much to you, but here in New Zealand where deaths in “peace time” are rare for our military personnel it does. Key is a disgrace to our Nation.
You have been misinformed. It was not a school baseball game that mad the headlines, but that fact that John Key (or as we call him, Donkey, chose to have a weekend off instead of attending the funerals of two New Zealand soldiers. He hit the headlines because we, the people of New Zealand are appalled at his priorities. He has twisted the truth. Please do not believe him.
The reason this was news here in New Zealand is because he skipped out on his duty as Prime Minister to watch this game, instead of attending soldier’s funerals, like we pay him for. The whole country was talking about it for those reasons only.
can you keep him please? we would get on so much better without him ruining & trying to sell our country. hes a proven liar & his favorite television show is ‘the biggest loser’ & he made the comment once that if they stopped welfare in nz not that many people would starve.
If you spent even 5 minutes in NZ you would realise that baseball is not even in our orbit. This man (Key) has had 7 soldiers die under his watch in Afghanistan, a lot for a small country, and he disrespects them to attend a game in the US. While at Merryl Lynch he was not called ‘the smiling assassin’ for nothing. As for being on the job 24/7 365 days a year, yeah right. He spends as much time in his ‘holiday home’ in Hawaii as he does here in NZ.
If he said the above in Parliament, he would have lied, and that is an indictable offence under parliamentary rules. He is a liar, and this time, as PM he has NOT put his country before himself. Shame on him. May those soldiers rest in peace.
He successfully paid his respects to the families of the bereaved in person and then kept a promise to his son. Well managed.
This guy, who purports to be our Prime Minister is a wolf in Italian suits. The news I have heard regarding this American sport is surrounding Key’s decision not to attend the funeral of two soldiers who were killed in Afghanistan while saying that his son sacrificed for him so he would support him. Baseball is not a popular sport in New Zealand and it seems yet again the Donkey Key is out of touch with the general public while he is holed up in his multi-million dollar mansion, or in his holiday h0me in Hawaii, or on vacation etc etc. Of course his son is lucky to have travelled and seen places, courtesy of Key’s fortune made at the expense of the New Zealand dollar in the late 1980’s and similar dodgy deals made while he was at Merril Lynch. Interestingly,when he was in the U.K and it was widely reported that he met with the Queen, it wasn’t widely reported that he met with the head of Barclay’s,who are now up to their neck in the LIBOR scandle. I know of many New Zealanders who don’t trust the man, who believe that he doesn’t have our best interests at heart and is a stooge for big money and dodgy investors. I would take anything he says with a grain of salt: he is,after all,a politician.