British Baseball Beat: From the HSL to the NBC

The 2010 British baseball season is almost here. 

Teams are putting the final touches to their pre-season preparation with the Herts Spring League coming to a climax and various other Spring Training games being played across the country. The National Baseball League (NBL) gets underway on Sunday with four double-headers in the south of the country, as does the AAA North with some games also being played in AA South, AA Midlands and A South.  The AAA South and AA North Leagues swing into action the following weekend. 

If you’re looking for a diversion from the 24/7 General Election newsathon, and I’m sure that’s the case for most people, then the British baseball season is about to provide you with one. 

National Baseball Championships details announced

The BBF have now released the NBC details to go alongside the regular season and playoff schedules.

British baseball’s marquee event will take place at a single venue over one weekend (4-5 September) this year, after being split over two weekends and two venues in 2009.  The venue for the NBC will be determined later in the season after a bidding process. Croydon has been the host for the last five years and will be the frontrunner again, although the new developments on the second field at Herts could make them strong contenders as well.

The double-elimination format introduced last year has been retained for both the NBL and AAA National Baseball Championships; however to fit in those twelve games the AA and A Leagues’ contribution to the NBC has been reduced to a single nine-inning Grand Final game each, with a greater emphasis being placed on the two playoff rounds leading up to the NBC.  That’s been met with disappointment by some in the AA and A Leagues.

Aspi Dimitrov, BBF Southern Senior League Commissioner, kindly took the time to explain the new postseason structure and the decision to move back to a single NBC.  “Last year the BBF managed to promote the game by staging two NBCs at two different venues, one in the North and one in the South.  This put tremendous financial pressure on the BBF and if the BBF was to stage two NBCs again this year the cost would be even higher.  The feedback from clubs has been that the BBF should look to minimise costs and concentrate all its resources in achieving one of the main objectives of the NBC, which is to create a spectacular event which would not only provide enjoyment to the players but would also act as an advert for the sport to attract more participants to the game, more publicity and generate interest from the general public.

Staging the NBC at one venue, rather than two, means that the BBF has to find the right balance in order to achieve these objectives and I think that we have managed to do this”.

The qualification process and schedule for the playoffs are published on the BBF website and they show that plenty of teams will be able to take part in exciting and meaningful games.  

“Last year the BBF reintroduced the postseason playoffs in the AA and A Leagues and, after extensive consultation, the feedback from clubs has been overwhelmingly in favour of adding more playoff games in the postseason” said Dimitrov.  “The playoffs are also expected to add value to the regular season by keeping the season alive longer for a larger number of teams similar to the positive effect which the Wild Card has had in MLB.  Obviously, there is a risk of devaluing the significance of the regular season but the postseason qualification has been structured in such a way that a team’s chances of success will be lower if they qualify as the team finishing second in the regular season compared to the team finishing first, for example”.

An additional selling point of the structure is that it will allow clubs across the country to hold additional ‘event’ days to promote the sport in fiercely competitive, do-or-die games.  “Rather than having two or more separate two-day NBCs, the BBF will aim to package and schedule several playoff games at the same venue and on the same day”, said Dimitrov.  “For example, the AA and A playoffs between the Midlands and North teams can be held at the same venue -  three back-to-back games and six teams at one venue.  This would allow one-day NBC-like events to be staged and promote the game across the whole country on 21 August and 28 August and at the same time avoid the prohibitive costs of organising a two-day event which could amount to thousands of pounds, especially if we take into account the accommodation costs of the participating teams. 

This of course will require clubs to bid to host these large playoff events and the hope is that this will take the game of baseball to all parts of the country”.

Making the NBC a single weekend event obviously reduces the number of games that can be played and finding a solution to please everyone was always going to be difficult, if not impossible.  A double-elimination event for the NBL does seem justified, so you then have to find the best fit for the rest of the games.  Reducing the AAA NBC from its double-elimination format and making the NBCs for AAA, AA and A into semi-finals/grand final events would only increase the total number of games by one (up from 14 to 15), but it would mean more teams travelling to the NBC potentially to play only one game, and more teams staying overnight.  Would that be preferable or even achievable (eight games on the Sunday)? I guess that’s up for debate, as are other permutations.

The current format does still mean that Sunday 5 September will be a fantastic way to end the season.  As Dimitrov notes: “The two top leagues in the country, the NBL and AAA, will commence the NBC on the Saturday and they will be joined on Sunday by the best teams in the AA and A Leagues which means that the champions in all four leagues will be decided on that final day”. 

The BBF have clearly put a lot of thought into the plans and it will now be a case of seeing how they work and then all involved putting forward their views on the positives and negatives to inform any possible improvements for 2011. 

Bracknell Blazers and Leicester Blue Sox take the Herts Spring League 2010 honours

The Bracknell Blazers will be the team everyone wants to beat this year: that’s what comes with being the reigning NBL champions.  It’s a fact that applies even in Spring Training and, while regular season play is a step-up from pre-season preparations, the Blazers are already showing signs that they will not fear having a target on their back in 2010.

The Blazers defeated the Herts Falcons by a score of 5-2 to win the HSL Majors competition on Sunday.  They took a 5-0 lead after four and a half innings, led as always by Mike and Ryan Trask with the former pitching all eight innings for his team. The Falcons were able to reduce the deficit to 5-2 in the bottom of the fifth, but couldn’t get any closer.

Perhaps a Falcons fight back was doomed from the start? Grovehill Ballpark may well have used up its comeback quota already in the first game of the day, the Minors Final, between Sidewinders and Leicester Blue Sox.

The seven-inning game looked over heading into the bottom of the fifth with Sidewinders leading 15-2.  However that’s when the Blue Sox mounted “one of the greatest comebacks seen in British tournament baseball”, as their website put it (and it’s very hard to disagree). Three runs in the fifth inning and six runs in the sixth put them back in the game at 15-11. Sidewinders tacked on what may have seemed like an insurance run in the ninth, but the Blue Sox buzz saw just couldn’t be stopped.  Five runs came across the plate to bring the teams level at 16-16 in the bottom of the seventh and a most unlikely of victories was secured on a most unlikely play: a walk-off run being scored by Ross Connell on a wild pitch by the unfortunate Juan.

Further details, including a rundown of the outstanding performers from the tournament, are available on the HSL website: http://www.hertsbaseball.com/HSL/