Author Archives: Matt Smith

About Matt Smith

Matt Smith is the editor and lead writer at BaseballGB. An Oakland A's fan, Matt has been following baseball since 1998 and started writing about the sport in 2006. He is the current Chair of the British Baseball Hall of Fame.

British Baseball Beat: Heating up

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Britain is experiencing scorchio weather this week and the action is certainly hotting up in British Baseball too.

Mets Gonna Mets, but that’s a good thing in the NBL

The London Mets (17-1) got straight back to winning ways in the National Baseball League last Sunday, avenging their previous defeat by the Herts Falcons (7-13) in the process.

The Mets beat the Falcons 14-4 as some measure of pay-back for the latter spoiling an attempt at an unbeaten season by the reigning champs. First baseman Rich Minford led the offence with 4 RBI from a 3-for-4 performance, whilst Michael Hoyles (4IP, 2ER) and Fred Mosier (2IP, 2ER) kept the Herts’ hitters in check.

The Mets then jumped on their hosts by defeating the Essex Arrows (5-15) 11-0. Brian Lainoff pitched five score-less frames for London, allowing only one hit and one walk whilst striking out three.

As the Mets continued their dominance and march to a first seed in the play-offs, the Arrows’ victory in the opening game of the day’s action may prove to be more than a mere footnote.

The Arrows beat the Falcons 12-11 to draw within two games of them for third place in the league. Although the current second-placed London Capitals (10-10) are far from an easy opponent, there’s no doubt that both the Falcons and Arrows would prefer to finish third in the standings and avoid the Mets in the semi-final game.

The Arrows still have plenty of work to do to avoid finishing fourth, yet winning the final match-up against the Falcons this season at least helps with the task. They’ll look to build on the win this coming Sunday in a double-header against the Capitals, as the Falcons host the Mets.

Triple-A

In Triple-A, East London Latin Boys (16-4) remain the division leaders following two victories over the Richmond Knights (6-14).

The Latin Boys’ closest rivals, the Essex Redbacks (11-9) and Herts Londoners (9-7), split a double-header in dramatic fashion. The Londoners took the opener 10-4 with Miguel Sarmiento’s home run (and what can only be described as post-home run Superman swag) captured on camera.

However, the Redbacks found some kryptonite for the second game and absolutely demolished the Londoners 27-0.

Whilst those teams stayed where they were in the standings, the big movers were the London Mammoths (9-11). They jumped from 6th to 4th by winning both games against the Oxford Kings (8-10).

This Sunday will see some repeat match-ups as the Redbacks and Londoners renew their rivalry, as will the Mammoths and Kings. Kent Buccaneers will look to jump into the play-off places as the current sixth-placed team host a double-header against Richmond.

Lucky number 13 for Bournemouth

The Bournemouth Bears’ (13-0) 13th game of the season did not prove to be unlucky, as the Double-A Pool A leaders defeated the Guildford Mavericks (6-11) 29-13 to remain unbeaten

Richmond Dragons (5-10) were walk-off winners against Herts Hawks (8-6) in the first game of their double-header, winning 10-8, before the Hawks snapped a six-game losing streak in the second contest with a 12-9 victory, powered by a home run by Double-A debutant Nico Durer.

Bristol Badgers (10-5) stay second in Pool A after being awarded a forfeited 7-0 win over Brighton Jets (1-11), seeing them remaining four games back of the Bears, with the Hawks and further 1.5 games back off the Badgers. The Hawks will be the next team to attempt to thwart the Bears’ perfect regular season on Sunday, whilst the Dragons host the Jets.

Double-A Pool B results and Single-A results were still to be added to the BBF website at time of writing.

South West Baseball League

It was a mixed weekend for Bristol in the SWBL, but their game report on Facebook highlighted the efforts of young pitcher Charlie Taylor who showed composure beyond his years to close out the Buccaneers’ victory over the Brewers.

https://www.facebook.com/173673559428286/posts/2149326388529650?s=684221400&sfns=mo

Galaxy lead the way in Scotland

Leeds Rams ramping up

And finally, some great news to end on. Leeds Rams are working hard to bring baseball back to the city and they had their first game a week ago. Onwards an upwards from here!

British Baseball Beat

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The British Baseball Beat continues apace with plenty of action around the leagues, Great Britain U15’s playing in Germany and a successful new tournament in Scotland.

AAU Collegiate win the first Bobby Thomson Invitational Tournament

Up in Scotland, the three main independent leagues in British baseball came together for a new tournament this past weekend in Edinburgh.

The British Baseball League, South West Baseball League and home Scotland Baseball each fielded an All-Star team taking on the touring party of AAU Collegiate.

The collegiate summer team from the States came out on top, winning the final 6-1 against the BBL’s Northern Knights, but reports from the event show that whilst the ‘home’ players didn’t come away with the trophy, they took plenty from the tournament and plan to host it again next year.

It’s great to see another new event added to the British Baseball calendar and hopefully it will be even bigger and better in twelve months’ time.

NBL: Mets stay top but lose their unbeaten run

The London Mets (15-1), London Capitals (10-10) and Herts Falcons (7-11) shared out the wins at Grovehill Ballpark on Sunday in the National Baseball League.

The Capitals started the day with a 9-1 victory over the Falcons, but were then blanked by the seemingly impenetrable Mets’ pitching staff 8-0. However, Herts were able to beat the odds and secure a 5-4 win over the Mets, in part thanks to a home run by the always-dangerous Jarrod Pretorius.

London Mets still have a healthy lead in the standings and remain favourites to make it three national championships in a row, but the Falcons at least showed an upset against them is possible.

The Mets will have an immediate chance to gain some revenge this Sunday as the two teams meet as part of another trifecta of games, this time hosted by the Essex Arrows.

German Detour

Reading of Pretorius’s latest home run reminded me to check in on the all-time NBL home-run leader Maikel Azcuy. He’s in his second year in Germany playing and coaching for Berlin Flamingos (who sadly don’t play in pink uniforms).

Azcuy wasn’t able to prevent Berlin from being relegated last year, but he’s more than doing his bit to try to get them promoted again.

I’m not sure quite what the mercy rules are in the German leagues, but on 6 July the Flamingos won by the score of 44-1 against Leipzig Wallbreakers (presumably the wall breaking being done by Leipzig’s pitching coach’s head). Azcuy went 5-for-7, with his first 5 plate appearances resulting in a single, three doubles and a home run. This came after he went 4-for-6 with a home run against them in a 35-0 victory earlier in the season.

Berlin had the good grace to bench him for the second half of the double-header, which was called after five innings with the Flamingos up 10-0.

Azcuy went 1-for-5 and 2-for-3 this past Saturday as Berlin defeated Hannover Regents twice. He’s hitting .442 on the season and whilst there’s no official word yet on whether he will be part of Great Britain’s European Championship roster, he’s certainly showing that the hitting conditions in Germany suit him.

Bears Remain Unbeaten

With the Mets losing their proud 0, that leaves Double-A Bournemouth Bears (12-0) as the only team in the BBF leagues yet to taste defeat this season. They defeated the Brighton Jets (1-10) 20-4 to make it 12 wins in a row.

Elsewhere, Richmond Dragons (4-9) earned a 25-15 over Guildford Mavericks (6-10). Twitter updates show London Sidewinders beat London Marauders 14-12 whilst Norwich Iceni picked up a 19-14 win away to the Brentwood Stags, although these are still to be added to the BBF website.

Showing the men how it’s done!

Cambridge is no stranger to being home to historic moments. The city’s baseball teams are doing their best to uphold this reputation by making a bit of history of their own at Coldham’s Common.

Meanwhile Molly Willcox and Tsz Yan Chan of the South West Baseball League’s Bristol Buccaneers will be among the players taking part in the Women’s Baseball UK (WB-UK) event in Bristol on Saturday.

Single-A Central results

The Cambridge Royals’ (4-14) female infield efforts couldn’t hold back the division-leading Leicester Blue Sox (16-4) this time, however, as the visitors took both games of the double-header by scores of 13-7 and 14-1.

Meanwhile the Cambridge Lancers (1-21) also took two defeats at the hands of Northants Centurions (6-12). In fact, it was sweeps all around in A-Central as Birmingham Outlaws (12-4) also picked up two home wins against Long Eaton Storm (13-3). The Outlaws and Bandits will be staging a Birmingham derby double-header this Sunday.

Single-A South: Herts bragging rights for the Eagles

Speaking of derbies, in Single-A South the first Herts derby since 2016 went the way of the Eagles as they earned two victories against the Raptors. The latter are already eyeing the re-match:

South Coast Pirates (12-4) swept a double-header in Guildford against the Millers (7-11).

Great Britain U-15s playing Hardball

Four Herts players are among the Great Britain U15 squad in Germany this week competing in the Hardball City Cup.

The Young Lions are flying so far with a perfect 3-0 record. Follow all the news on the GB Baseball Twitter account.

Tie-breaker brings an end to Great Britain U18’s Euro Qualifier

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Great Britain U18’s bowed out of the European Championship U18 Qualifier in Sundbyberg, Sweden, on Friday.

After Belgium mounted a 5-run final inning comeback to beat Israel, Great Britain entered their game on Friday evening against Sweden knowing that a win would send them through to Saturday’s final, but a defeat would leave their fate in the hands of the CEB’s dreaded Teams Quality Balance equation.

Unfortunately a 6-2 defeat, including a lengthy delay in the bottom of the sixth inning due to a problem with the floodlights, meant the latter did come into play and brought an end to their tournament.

Will Lintern’s team mounted a typically spirited final-inning fightback, plating one run and then having the bases loaded when Sweden were able to get a ground-out to end the threat.

Despite getting the victory, it turned out to be a frustrating night for the home team. Had Israel held onto their lead in the earlier game then Sweden’s 2-0 record against GB and Belgium would have sent them through to the final. Instead, the TQB tie-breaker was needed to separate Sweden, Britain and Israel’s 2-2 records and the Swede’s fell one run short of bettering Israel’s TQB score.

Positives to take

Every tournament gives players the opportunity to develop and there were plenty of signs of that on display for Great Britain.

Jack Seppings went 6-for-14, led the team in runs scored (7) and stolen bases (4 from 4 attempts, including 3 in the game against Switzerland) whilst also pitching 6.1 innings across three appearances.

Michael Flaherty went 6-for-13 with 3 doubles and James Warren proved to be an RBI machine, leading the team with 8 runs batted in.

William Baranello will surely learn a lot from his two starts in the event, showing a real ability to miss bats with 12 strike-outs over 8 innings pitched. If he can pair that with developing his control (11 walks and 3 wild pitches) then he could prove to be an exciting prospect.

Aside from what shows up in the stats, every inning pitched, every inning in the field and every plate appearance would have been valuable learning experience for the young Lions. The future looks bright even though the team didn’t quite go as far as they might have hoped this time around.

Full tournament details can be found on the CEB website.

Up next …

Great Britain’s U23 team are in tournament action next, heading to Prague in the Czech Republic for the U23 Euros. The competition begins on 7 August.

Great Britain U18s look to secure qualification for the 2020 U18 European Championships

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UPDATE: I’ve updated this post to correct it (rather than leave it up and post a new one that might get overlooked). The CEB competition rules state two teams go through but I overlooked that there are two qualifying pools! So, only the first placed-team will advance.

Great Britain U18’s staged a sensational comeback against Israel in Sundyberg, Sweden, on Thursday to give themselves a great chance of qualifying for the U18 European Championships next year.

Will Lintern’s team conceded 4 runs in the bottom of the first inning to be in an early hole against an Israel team that had won its first two games of the tournament. However this just set the stage for the Young Lions to roar back later on. They trailed 6-4 heading into the top of the sixth inning (the games here only lasting 7 innings rather than the usual 9) before turning the game on its head.

Great Britain scored 2 two-out runs in the sixth inning to draw level and then took the lead in the top of the seventh inning on a sacrifice fly by catcher Aidan Pearce that brought home Nathan Simmons. Jack Seppings had minimal margin for error in the bottom of the seventh inning but a 1-run lead was all he needed as he pitched around a hit-by-pitch to close the game out.

Where does that leave us?

Friday is the last day of the preliminary round before the qualifier final on Saturday.

Here are the standings heading into the final day.

PosTeamWL
1Belgium21
2Great Britain21
3Israel21
4Sweden12
5Switzerland13

Belgium and Israel will face each other at 13.00 UK time before Great Britain take to the field against Sweden at 17.30 UK time.

If Great Britain win their game they will be guaranteed a spot in the Qualifier final on Saturday. If Sweden win it then they alongside GB and the loser of the Belgium-Israel game will all be tied on 2-2 (the winner of that game will move to a 3-1 record and make the final). How that plays out depends on which of Belgium or Israel are left in the tie-breaker conundrum.

If Israel defeat Belgium

In this scenario the Great Britain and Sweden game will essentially become a semi-final. If GB win they go through with Israel, both on 3-1 records. If Sweden win then they would come out on top on the first tie-breaker rule, results between the teams tied, as they would hold a win against both of the teams they are tied with (whereas Belgium and Great Britain would both be 1-1).

If Belgium defeat Israel

It becomes more complicated in this scenario as Great Britain, Israel and Sweden would all be 1-1 in results against each other. That means it would go on to the second tie-breaker, CEB’s dreaded Teams Quality Balance (TQB) equation.

Teams Quality Balance (TQB) is the sum of runs scored divided by the number of innings played on offense minus the number of runs allowed divided by the number of innings played on defense. (RS/IPO)-(RA/IPD)=TQB.


The TQB is calculated with four decimal places. The fifth decimal place is used to round up or down

Currently, if my sums are correct (warning: that is not a given!), Israel have a decent lead (0.43095) ahead of GB (0.05) and then Sweden (-0.23333); however those figures could change substantially depending on the results of the final games. And it won’t just be a simple calculation either: a 1-run loss for GB would affect things differently depending on it being 0-1 or 5-6 etc.

So, what result do we want from the Belgium-Israel game?

From an odds point of view I guess Belgium winning is preferable because that would at least give Great Britain a second chance even if they lost against Sweden; however the clear-cut, winner-goes-through scenario that would follow an Israel victory in the opening game would be less of a brain-scrambler.

Of course, the best result would be for Great Britain to beat Sweden and make the earlier Belgium-Israel result irrelevant (other than in deciding who GB will face in the final). That would make everyone happy.

Other than Sweden.

But then they gave us Abba which ultimately led to the film Mamma Mia (and Mamma Mia 2), so they’d just have to accept that karma was on our side.

How to follow the games

You can follow along either by using the classic CEB ‘Gameday’ scoring system on their website or watch via the Sundbyberg Heat YouTube channel.

British Baseball Beat: Back to it

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“Hey, Matt, why haven’t you been writing about the British leagues much this year?”.

I was asked variations of this question quite a few times over the MLB London Series weekend and I have to say I was flattered that people had noticed!

The truth is I’ve been busy with other projects and have always worked on the basis of wanting to write things I had put time into rather than just quickly putting stuff up on the website for the sake of regular content.

One of the ongoing projects is a redesign for this site, as I look to focus it much more on covering the British leagues and British baseball history and related video content, and I was going to wait until that was done before getting going again. However, striking whilst the (West Ham?) iron is hot, let’s get back into the swing of things by casting a glance around the British scene.

National teams making us proud

Firstly, Great Britain U-12s recently qualified for the 2020 European Championships by finishing second in their qualifying tournament in Trebic, Czech Republic.

The Young Lions fought back from 4-1 down against Austria to earn a crucial win 5-4 with Erik Gustafson starring, driving in two runs and then pitching 2.2 score-less relief innings. The final game against Slovakia didn’t go GB’s way, but even in this contest they showed great heart by making it close (13-9 final score) despite their opponents scoring eight runs in the second inning. All in all, a great achievement for Eric Anderson and his team.

Next up are Will Lintern’s U18 squad. They started their Euro qualifier in Sundbyberg, Sweden today with a 10-8 victory over Switzerland. Jack Seppings was doing it all for the team, going 3-for-4 at the plate, driving in 4 runs, stealing 3 bases and pitching two innings in relief.

The team have an off-day on Tuesday before getting back to it on Wednesday with a game against Belgium. First pitch will be at 13.00 BST. Coverage is available on the good-old CEB website ‘Gameday live’ system and streamed live on the Sundbyberg Heat YouTube channel.

National Baseball League

In the top-tier, the London Mets were clearly inspired by the recent visit of some New York Yankee legends to Finsbury Park. They improved their season win-loss record to 14-0 with two victories over the London Capitals (9-9) by scores of 8-1 and 5-1. The Mets’ pitching staff is completely handcuffing the rest of the NBL, with the team having allowed only 25 runs across their 14 games played.

Herts Falcons were looking for two wins to separate themselves from the Essex Arrows in the standings.

They got them, only not quite in the way they would have wanted. The Falcons were awarded two forfeit wins, improving their record to 6-10.

Double-A

Bournemouth Bears (11-0) continued their unbeaten start to the season by picking up wins 10 and 11 against the Herts Hawks (7-5), whilst Bristol Badgers (8-5) kept their good form up with two wins against Richmond Dragons (3-9).

In Pool B, London Marauders (11-2) swept a double-header against Cambridge Monarchs (5-7). In the opener, Billy Atkinson Warne gave up just 3 hits across seven innings of one-run ball, striking out 11 Monarchs in the process as the Marauders prevailed 9-1. The second game then quickly got out of hand for Cambridge as London put nine runs on the board in the first inning, with the game eventually being called 12-0 after four innings.

In Norwich, the Iceni (5-6) split a double-header with London Sidewinders (8-5).

Single-A

In the Central, Long Eaton Storm and Birmingham Outlaws are the form teams.

Long Eaton swept a double-header over Cambridge Lancers on Sunday to make it a perfect 10 wins in a row, improving their season record to 13-1. As for the Outlaws, since they lost two games against Long Eaton on 19 May they have won eight straight, the most recent successes being two wins against Northants Centurians.

Meanwhile in Single-A Pool B the Kent Buccaneers collected two wins at the expense of Tonbridge.

Baseball Scotland

North of the border, there were inter-city derbies to enjoy (or endure, depending on which end you were on). Glasgow Galaxy got the better of Glasgow Comets 16-5, whilst Edinburgh Cannons defeated the Edinburgh Diamond Devils 5-1.

This coming weekend is going to be a big one in Scotland as the Bobby Thomson Invitational event will be staged in Edinburgh. Talent from the three main independent leagues – Scotland, British Baseball League and South West Baseball League – will be joined by the AAU USA International Collegiate Baseball Team. If you’re in the area, make sure to head along.

Ideas for 2020 London Series

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After the amazing success of last week’s 2019 London Series, it’s impossible not to look ahead to next year’s event and wonder what more might be done.

MLB got so many things right for the Yankees-Red Sox series, but there are always things to learn and to improve upon.

On our Oakland A’s UK YouTube channel, I talked about some of my ideas for making the Cubs-Cardinals event even better than this year’s edition.

MLB London Series Extra Tickets

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It was announced on Thursday that an extra 5,000 tickets will be available for both of the MLB London Series games between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees.

Those who had already registered an interest would have received an email providing the details, namely:

  • Tickets will go on sale on Thursday, April 11 10:00am BST
  • Tickets will be available in categories 6 (£120) to 10 (£30)
  • Those who have registered for the mailing list will receive a link to access ticket sales 48 hrs prior to tickets going on-sale

It’s at least another chance for a few more UK baseball fans to get some tickets, although based on the initial experience you can’t help but feel some will not get their hopes up and may not even bother trying.

The announcement prompted a news story on ESPN.com about the London Series that included an interesting statement about the tickets that have been sold so far:

Fans from 44 different states in the U.S. and 27 different countries have already purchased tickets for the MLB London series, according to StubHub general manager Jill Krimmel.

“The appeal of MLB to a global audience continues to grow, and the overwhelming response for the rivalry matchup between the Yankees and Red Sox in London certainly proves that the sport has fans worldwide,” Krimmel said.

You might be forgiven for thinking what’s it got to do with StubHub bearing in mind that Ticketmaster UK are the official partner for the MLB London Series? The answer is likely a combination of StubHub being a legitimate seller of tickets outside the UK and also that so many of the tickets have ended up on StubHub to the frustration of many who struggled to get tickets initially.

More to the point, the comment goes to show one of the key reasons why MLB has brought the games here.

London is a desirable location that baseball fans from all over would want to visit alongside experiencing this unique event. I’ve written about it before but it bears repeating: UK fans have every right to be disappointed if they can’t get tickets due to demand or price, but it’s precisely the wide demand in a London Series (and the subsequent ability to charge high prices) that is why they’re here at all. Otherwise the first MLB games on European soil would be taking place at Hoofddorp, Netherlands or Rome, Italy.

Hopefully at least some dedicated UK-based MLB fans will be able to benefit from the extra 10,000 tickets that will become available.

Great Britain Baseball Funding Boost

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$300m is an eye-catching figure, there’s no doubt about that.

Manny Machado’s impending payday with the San Diego Padres has received UK online media coverage today and you can understand why.

However, from a British perspective news of a much smaller sum will have a much larger impact.

It was announced at the end of last week that Great Britain Baseball will receive £30,500 from the UK Sport Aspiration Fund as part of the team’s preparations for the 2019 European Championships and associated Olympic qualification attempt. This came after the incredibly disappointing news from early December in which it was announced that baseball would receive no such funding, although GB Softball was awarded £62,500.

The hard work put in since that point, not least by BaseballSoftballUK, to gain some baseline funding for baseball should be applauded.

It’s easy to look at £30,500 and think it’s not a great deal of money in the general scheme of things, and it’s certainly true that this is far from a transformative sum. But for a programme that has become accustomed to doing all it can to build Great Britain baseball, from the juniors up to the seniors, with no national funding, any financial help is a bonus and can be used to good effect.

No one is underestimating the challenge Great Britain will face in finishing in the top five at the Euros and thereby making it through to the Africa/Europe qualifier.

The Netherlands will be prohibitive favourites to win the event, with Italy, Spain and the hosts Germany at good odds to join them in the top four, before a keen battle for the fifth spot, likely led by Belgium.

Liam Carroll’s team finished ninth overall at the most recent event (2016) and GB have only finished in the top five twice in the history of the tournament (silver medal finishes in 1967 and 2007), so it will be a big ask to break into that group. However, no one should be in any doubt as to the commitment and fight that the team and coaching staff will show to give their best and to make it happen.

The provisional schedule has handed GB the toughest start possible in opening up with games against the Netherlands and Germany, yet you kind of think that may be how the team will like it. We saw the same situation back in 2007 when Great Britain, led by Stephan Rapaglia, spoiled Spain’s Opening Day party and then rode a wave of confidence all the way to a final against the Dutch.

Great Britain heads into 2019 on the back of an encouraging bronze medal performance by the U23s in the European Championship Qualifier in Slovakia.

The U23s will be part of the European Championship U23 in Prague, Czech Republic in early August, with the U18s heading to the European Championship Qualifier Juniors U18 held in Sundbyberg, Sweden in July, a week after the U12s will have been in European action in Trebic, Czech Republic.

All worth noting for the next time someone hears about the MLB London Series and tries to tell you no one plays baseball here.

It’s also worth noting more generally in regard to the promotional impact that the Yankees and Red Sox coming to London will have. Understandably, MLB is coming to these shores to promote MLB, but there’s a great opportunity for us to use it as a way to promote British baseball too and in particular the Great Britain programme.

What better way for our teams to head into European competition starting in July than on the back of a late June MLB London Series that makes many more people aware (even among MLB fans based here) of our national team set-up.

And maybe even with a few fundraising events and initiatives to add to the £30,500 already in the pot.

British Baseball Beat: 2019 Preparations

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As MLB teams look ahead to starting Spring Training games this week, so baseball clubs across the British Isles continue with their 2019 season preparations on and off the field.

Here are a few notes from around the leagues (I’ll write a separate blog about the recent GB baseball funding news in the next few days).

Irish British Baseball Cup

Pretty much every comment about British baseball this year can be framed in the context of the publicty benefits that the MLB London Series will bring. The more events that can be put on the better and the BBF have started well with the inaugural Irish British Baseball Cup.

The event will see reigning Irish Baseball champions the Dublin City Hurricanes travelling to Farnham Park to take on the reigning NBL champions the London Mets to open the season on Saturday 6 April.

https://youtu.be/jwflIYBlEW0

Those unable to make it to Farnham can watch live (or on-demand) via the impressive BBF YouTube live stream game coverage. It will be interesting to see how the two teams stack up against each other, albeit for practical reasons just in a single nine-inning game.

The fact that the game will come barely a week after our supposed Brexit date may add a little more to the mix, hopefully in a positive publicity way in a British/EU coming-together rather than negative publicity in it being called off with our beloved Government not letting EU nationals in!

BBF Leagues

We can be certain that the London Mets will be defending their NBL crown once again, but we’ll be waiting a little while longer to see how the rest of the clubs and leagues will shape up as plans and fixture lists are put together following the 31 January BBF registration deadline.

We do know that the ever-progressive Herts Baseball Club took a Luniz approach to their submission by putting five on it.

(Pop culture aside: I remember that song coming out in 1995 and in looking it up for this reference realise that, in all my youthful naivety, I was completely oblivious to what the song was about!).

We knew Herts had plans to launch a new club in North West London and it turns out that not only will the Herts Londoners be bringing Triple-A baseball to their Basing Hill Ballpark, but the Herts Eagles name will be back in British baseball and offering Single-A baseball there too. That’s great news and provide yet another route for people in the capital inspired by the London Series to give baseball a go.

3 is a magic number for Bristol

Bristol are another club expanding for 2019

Bristol Badgers made it to the Double-A BBF final last year as well as fielding the Bats team in the indepenent South West Baseball League. The latter will be joined by Bristol Buccaneers in 2019 after a successful winter recruitment campaign.

Leeds Rams

Elsewhere we’re seeing some new baseball clubs forming. Leeds has hosted some excellent teams over the years and a new one is now being born as the Leeds Rams. They made an announcement a few weeks ago that they would be holding off from entering full league play in 2019 to build up for 2020.

It’s an approach that worked really well for Norwich Iceni Baseball, who registered with the BBF in 2016 to play friendly games before entering the league competition in 2017 and having a perfect season whilst capturing the Single-A title.

We’ve all seen many promising baseball clubs come and go over the years and there can be a lot of value in having some fixture flexibility in your first year as you build the foundations for a new team. Here’s hoping 2019 goes well for Leeds Rams and they charge into full league competition in 2020.

Sponsorship news

Funding and publicity is always such a big part of amateur sport so we should all be supportive of teams and leagues trying to increase both as part of our community.

Hull Scorpions are currently seeking sponsorship for their field:

Whilst Baseball Scotland have added a sponsor for 2019.

Kent’s Field of Dreams

Baseball facility improvements are also a vital part of growing our sport, benefitting both the local community and all teams that get to vist and share the facilities too.

Based on their Twitter updates, teams visiting Kent’s will enjoy their day out regardless of the game result.

News to share?

If your club any news to highlight, or wants to take part in some potential YouTube livestream chats during the upcoming season, let me know on Twitter (@mattbaseballgb) or using the Get In Contact form.


Oakland A’s 2019 Spring Schedule

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We’re now less than a week away from Spring Training games beginning.

The Oakland A’s and Seattle Mariners will be out on the field in Arizona next Thursday (21st), so it’s a good time to publish the A’s spring schedule, mentioned on my latest A’s UK video.

One thing to bear in mind, whether an A’s fan or not, is that the U.S. moves to daylight time three weeks before we do. An hour is added to clocks on Sunday 10th in the U.S. so from that point to Sunday 31st (when we move to British Summer Time) the usual time difference (5 hours ahead of Eastern Time, 8 hours ahead of Pacific Time) is reduced by one hour.

So here’s the schedule. It covers the Cactus League games, the games in Japan and the the Bay Area series, up to MLB Opening Day.