Each of the 8 teams from the previous season returned, however the Sydney Blues changed their name to the Sydney Storm after legal action taken by Cricket NSW during the offseason.
In the season opening press release, The league called for expressions of interest in a licence to reform the Canberra Bushrangers for the 1998–99 season, The Bushrangers previously folded at the end of the 1994–95 season.
Rosters
During the regular season each team made use of an active roster of 22–24 men, with a maximum of 4 import players.
The All-Stars Weekend, was the first series of All-Star exhibition games held by the Australian Baseball League. The games were contested over two nights at Carrara Oval on the Gold Coast, The then home of the Gold Coast Cougars franchise.[1]
The games were played between the Australian All-Stars, USA All-Stars and the 1997 Japanese Industrial League Champions the Mitsubishi Juko Kobe. The Australian and USA All-Star teams were selected from players who were at the time playing in the Australian Baseball League.[1]
Game 1: Australian All-Stars vs Mitsubishi Juko Kobe
In previous years the post season was played as home and away best of 3 games, with the two winner of each series meeting for a best of 5 series{fact}, in 1997–98 this was changed to a round robin play-off format with each team playing 3 games, 1 against each of the other 3 qualified teams, with the two highest places teams playing off in the Championship Series.[1]
All games for the 9th ABL title were played at the Melbourne Ballpark from February, 10-12 with the best of three championship series 14–15 February.[1]
