Tag Archives: British Baseball

World Baseball Classic Qualifiers in March

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This time of year is always exciting for baseball fans. Pitchers and catchers started to report to MLB Spring Training camps yesterday and British baseball teams are stepping up their pre-season training ahead of their 2020 campaigns.

We have even more reason to be excited this year, though, as Great Britain will be competing in a World Baseball Classic qualifier in Arizona at the end of March.

The only problem is, there still isn’t a huge amount of detail about the event barely a month before it is due to begin.

Although rumours of the qualifiers had been out there for a while, the event was only announced officially on 28 January. The published details confirmed that 12 teams would compete across two six-team tournaments to determine the final two qualifiers for the full 2021 WBC event. Both tournaments will be staged at the Kino Sports Complex in Tucson, Arizona.

Pool 1 takes place between 12-17 March and will consist of the following teams:

  • Brazil
  • France
  • Germany
  • Nicaragua
  • Pakistan
  • South Africa

Pool 2, the important one for us, follows this up between 20-25 March:

  • Czech Republic
  • Great Britain
  • New Zealand
  • Panama
  • Philippines
  • Spain.

Predicting international tournaments is always a challenge due to the fluid shape of the rosters from event to event and that’s especially the case for the WBC, where some Minor League prospects are released by their parent MLB team to compete.

The Great Britain programme has done an impressive job in recent years of creating an environment in which MLB teams trust them to provide a level of professionalism in how they will take care of the players. Liam Carroll’s team has benefited from some quality additions to the roster as a result in recent WBC qualifiers, not least shortstop Jazz Chisholm who was ranked by MLB Pipeline recently as the 66th best prospect in baseball.

Work will be going on behind the scenes to piece together the strongest group of Lions possible, mixing some MLB-affiliated talent with stalwarts of the Great Britain and domestic British baseball scene.

The full tournament format details can be found on MLB.com. Each pool will be comprised of a nine-game double elimination competition.

Great Britain’s first game, against the winner of Spain vs. New Zealand, will be on Saturday 21 March, although it is an evening game in Arizona and will actually start at 3.30 am for us. That’s 3.30 am on a Sunday though, which is supposed to be a day of rest and in this case can serve as a day of rest following an early start! The rest of the schedule will be determined by whether GB win that game or not.

The last two WBC qualifiers that Great Britain have been involved with have been streamed live for free on MLB.com, so hopefully that will be the same for these two events as they should provide some great action to liven up the Spring Training period.

Frustratingly, the official website still states that ticket details “will be available soon”. I’ve been contacted by several people over the past week or so, people in Arizona or those heading out there, eager to know more and having failed to receive information from other official sources. You do get the sense that this is all a bit ‘last minute’, which is a real shame considering how much these events mean to the baseball communities of the countries involved.

Fingers crossed that clarification will be forthcoming soon and, whether from Arizona or the UK, we can start planning how we can follow Great Britain’s progress.

British Baseball Hall of Fame 2019 Elections

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Four new members join the British Baseball Hall of Fame

The 2019 elections to the British Baseball Hall of Fame have introduced four new inductees, increasing the class to 38.

Ryan Bird, Jason Holowaty and Darrin Muller were inducted from the modern ballot, with Alan Asquith being elected by the historical vetting panel that was introduced in 2016.

Hall of Fame Chair Matt Smith commented: “I’m delighted to see four such worthy candidates joining our Hall of Fame, all with different stories to tell but sharing a true commitment to the game in Britain and excelling at what they did.

Ryan Bird and Alan Asquith had memorable playing careers in different eras, with Ryan representing the Richmond Flames and Herts Falcons and Alan being a pillar of the strong Humberside baseball community.

Jason Holowaty combined a playing career that brought four national championships with a long tenure of service to baseball at MLB and BaseballSoftballUK. As for Darrin Muller, for many years he has been one of the most widely recognised and respected representatives of British Baseball at home and abroad, both as a coach and particularly as an umpire.

The task of electing figures who represent the best of British baseball is both a difficult challenge and a hugely rewarding process.

There are so many players, coaches, umpires and officials who have left a mark on our game over the decades and, in contrast to the process Stateside, the full depth of their achievements is rarely packaged neatly through comprehensive statistics or biographical data. However, for us, this is part of the fun. The work that goes into researching potential candidates and writing their stories goes largely unseen but is, to us, as important as the final balloting process that determines who among that year’s list of candidates shine through the most.

Thanks to the Great Britain national team programme, we were able to honour the 2018 class at an event over the MLB London Series weekend back in June, and we will hopefully be able to do something similar in June 2020 for this year’s class. Beyond this, the contributions of Ryan, Jason, Darrin and Alan will be there for all to see on the BBHOF website as we continue to document and celebrate baseball’s rich history on these shores”.

Ryan Bird

Over eight seasons in British domestic play, South African-native Ryan Bird etched a place in the history books as one of British baseball’s greatest hitters. At the time of his retirement, Bird, whose career ran from 2008-2015, posted the highest career batting average (.508), on base percentage (.578) and slugging percentage (.822) in modern British baseball history. He was named the country’s most valuable batter three times (2008, 2009, 2013) and led the National Baseball League in RBI in 2013 and home runs in 2009. He was also recognised as the best fielding first basemen in 2012. All told, he tallied 15 HRs and 119 RBI over the course of 385 plate appearances for the Richmond Flames and Herts Falcons.

Jason Holowaty

Both on offence and defence, Jason Holowaty shined in a distinguished British playing career. He was a key player for four national championship teams – Richmond (2006), London Mets (2007, 2008) and Southern Nationals (2011). Off the field, Holowaty contributed to baseball in the UK and, more broadly, in Europe and Africa, as a key game development executive for Major League Baseball in the region from 2002 to 2016. He has also worked for BaseballSoftballUK in a game development capacity. A lifetime .423 hitter, Holowaty not only earned a batting title as a member of the Richmond Flames in 2006, but also nabbed a Gold Glove award as the best defensive second baseman for the London Mets the following season.

Darrin Muller

Darrin Muller has had a long-ranging and successful involvement with British baseball over many years. His accomplishments in particular include numerous successes as coach and then one of the most impressive umpiring careers of any British umpire. Darrin has umpired in more than 2250 games. They include 17 National Baseball Championships and 13 Youth National Baseball Championships, 445 International games, 11 ISST’s (International High School) European Championships, 4 Pony Baseball European Championships, 2 Pony World Series, 6 Little League European and African Nations Regionals, the 2016 Little League Junior World Series, 12 CEB European Tournaments and the 2009 IBAF World Cup.

Alan Asquith (Historic Committee)

In 1974, the leading British baseball journal of its day, Baseball Mercury, described Alan Asquith as “for years, the country’s leading pitcher.” Indeed, for more than a decade Asquith was a leading light in the Humberside area in particular and one of the best nationwide. In both 1966 and 1967 he received the award as the top pitcher in the Northern Division of the National League, but his 1968 season may have been his most rewarding. Asquith pitched his club, the Hull Aces, to a national title by winning both the semi-final match against the Liverpool Tigers, and the finals versus the Hull Royals. He allowed just a combined five hits while striking out 17 in those two games.

Further information

Full details of the four new members, and the other 34 individuals previously elected to the British Baseball Hall of Fame, can be found a: www.bbhof.org.uk

Great Britain win but miss out on Euro Quarter-Finals

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Great Britain lining-up against Germany. Photo courtesy of Paul Stodart, https://hotshot.photo
Great Britain lining-up against Germany. Photo courtesy of Paul Stodart, https://hotshot.photo

Great Britain did all they could in Germany on Wednesday, but sadly it wasn’t quite enough to earn a European Championship quarter-final place.

The Lions beat Sweden 13-7 to finish their First Round on a 2-3 win-loss record. The result left the team and their supporters waiting nervously as Germany played the Czech Republic, knowing that a win for Germany would be enough to put GB through to the quarter-finals.

Unfortunately for us, the Czech Republic had other ideas. Their 10-6 victory meant the Czechs finished 3rd in Pool A. Germany’s previous 1-0 win over GB on Sunday broke the tie between the two 2-3 teams, putting them in fourth place and Great Britain into the classification round.

I did a live-stream on Periscope/Twitter after the game and have uploaded it onto the new British Baseball Beat YouTube channel, adding in some excellent photos by Paul Stodart, who is out in Germany with the team.

https://youtu.be/caYwGXJ0_pQ

As discussed in the video, here’s how the Classification Round section is structured (all times in BST).

The tournament continues for Great Britain with a game against Austria on Thursday (10.00am BST first pitch). Follow the game live at baseballsoftball.tv.

Quarter-Finals still possible for Great Britain

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Great Britain head into their final game of the First Round of the 2019 European Baseball Championships on Wednesday still in with a shout of making it to the Quarter Finals.

Tuesday’s 7-4 loss to Israel showed once again how small margins can make such a big difference in short-series tournaments.

Great Britain got off to the perfect start in Solingen, Germany, when third baseman Ben Andrews hit a three-run homer in the bottom of the first inning, but Israel had drawn level at 3-3 when he stepped up to the plate to lead-off the bottom of the sixth.

Andrews hit a double into left-field for his third hit of the game, the second being a single in the third inning, and, after Rich Brereton struck out, he advanced to third on a wild pitch. Nate Thomas then walked and stole second base to put runners on second and third, only for Maikel Azcuy (strike-out) and Rich Klijn (pop-up to second base) to leave them stranded.

It felt like a momentum-changing situation and, unfortunately for us, that’s how it proved. Blake Gaillen hit a two-run homer in the top of the seventh inning to give Israel a 5-3 lead that they wouldn’t relinquish.

Although Jordan Serena quickly got one of those runs back by singling home Will Savage in the bottom of the frame, Israel scored a run in the top of the eighth before Gaillen struck again in the ninth for his second long-ball of the game and his third of the tournament so far.

A game that Great Britain might have gone on to win, against a very good Israel team, slipped away to a 7-4 defeat, just as a brilliant showing against Germany on Sunday only amounted to a 1-0 loss. Liam Carroll’s team have been close to putting together a hugely impressive First Round and whilst being so close, but so far, is frustrating, it also shows the talent and fight the team has that they put themselves into that position.

They’ll need to draw on those reserves on Wednesday to give themselves a chance of making it to the Quarter-Finals.

How things stand

Let’s deal with the second part of the day first.

Great Britain’s suspended game against the Netherlands will be completed with a ‘first’ pitch set for 17.30 UK time. The Dutch were leading 10-2 after eight innings when bad light meant the final regulation inning could not be played, so whilst we can all cross our fingers for a comeback to end all comebacks, more realistically we should pencil in a loss to GB’s record (and a W for the Dutch).

If we do that, then Pool A will look like this ahead of the three scheduled games to be played in full:

PTeamWL
1Israel40
2Netherlands31
3Czech Republic22
4Germany22
5Great Britain13
6Sweden04

Wednesday’s Pool A fixtures, all being played in Bonn, are as follows:

  • Sweden v Great Britain (12:30 BST).
  • Israel v Netherlands (14:00)
  • Germany v Czech Republic (18:00).

What do we need to happen?

Great Britain’s game is the first one up and, pending a shocking comeback against the Netherlands later on, quite simply is a game they must win to have a chance of finishing the top four.

From there, attention will turn to the game at 18:00 BST between Germany and the Czech Republic. That will determine which of those two teams finishes 3-2 and which finishes 2-3, and that will be hugely important for Great Britain.

CEB tournament rules dictate that the first tie-breaker when two teams finish on the same win-loss record is the head-to-head result between the two teams.

If Germany beat the Czech Republic then Great Britain will finish fourth, qualifying for the quarter-finals, due to our 4-3 win over them on Monday.

If the Czech Republic beat Germany then we will be placed in fifth, with Germany’s 1-0 win on Sunday putting them ahead of us.

A nervous day ahead!

Those small margins will loom large on Wednesday. If Great Britain lose to Sweden not only will that put us into the ‘Classification’ section, rather than the quarter-finals, it would also mean a sixth-placed pool finish (Sweden winning the tie-breaker with us both on 1-4 records). That would be a real shame and not at all representative of how well the team has played.

But let’s not allow such negative thoughts into our heads. Instead, let’s focus on cheering Great Britain to victory over the Swedes and then spending the rest of the afternoon learning the German national anthem!

After the games are complete

I’ve been live-streaming ahead of Great Britain’s games on Periscope/Twitter over the last few days and if you haven’t seen them then you can check them out on the new British Baseball Beat YouTube channel. As noted there, the YouTube channel is going to be developed over the off-season but it seemed a good idea to collate these videos in one place so we’ll call it a soft launch!

Here’s the video recorded prior to Tuesday’s games, as an example:

https://youtu.be/VsBnllet_8A

I’m planning to do a live-stream on Periscope/Twitter after the Germany-Czech Republic game (so, probably about 21:00 BST) to reflect on the day’s events, so keep an eye out for that on my Twitter account: @mattbaseballgb.

London Mets win their sixth National Title

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The London Mets made some more history at Farnham Park today, defeating London Capitals 14-4 to win the British National Baseball Championship for the third consecutive season, and a record sixth time overall.

London Mets 2019 National Baseball Champions – BBF YouTube

The Mets are only the fourth team in British Baseball history to win three national titles in a row, joining the Cobham Yankees (1986-88), Enfield Spartans (1989-91) and Southern/Harlow Nationals (2011-13).

The London Mets came to prominence whilst winning back-to-back titles in 2007 and 2008, but their recent run has put them at the top of the all-time National Champions list. They’ve participated in each of the past six finals, winning four and losing two to the Essex Arrows in 2014 and Southampton Mustangs in 2016.

Sunday’s final was set up by a pair of semi-final games on Saturday. London Mets were pushed hard by the Essex Arrows, but ultimately prevailed 4-1, whilst the Capitals booked their place in the final with an emphatic 17-6 win over Herts Falcons.

The Mets and Capitals finished first and second in the regular season so it was fitting that these were the two teams battling it out to the end. Ultimately, the Mets showed their class by jumping ahead in the final and the game ended on a well-hit line-out to third base in the seventh inning, with the game being called after seven innings and the Mets leading by ten runs.

It’s a great achievement by Drew Spence and his team and there’s no doubt that the London Mets are the benchmark in British Baseball right now.

The games are available to watch back in full via the BBF’s excellent YouTube coverage. The weekend also saw East London Latin Boys capturing their first Triple-A title with a 12-2 seven-inning victory over Cartmel Valley Lions.

British Baseball Beat: Play-off Places

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We’re at the sharp-end of the British Baseball season, although that’s not to say everything is decided.

Some regular season games are still to be played and some wider questions over who is going to make the post-season are still to be answered.

Firstly it should be noted that the (much-improved from last year) BBF website is using a football template for the division tables, so confusingly is displaying a points system (3 for a win) and goal difference rather than the baseball format of how many games back of first place the team is. I’ve converted the current tables as published at time of writing below.

NBL: Arrows in the Air

The London Mets (21-1) carried on their winning ways last Sunday by defeating the Essex Arrows (5-19) by a score of 15-4 and edging a close game against the London Capitals (13-11) 2-1.

This Sunday will conclude the regular season with the Arrows hosting the Mets and the Capitals hosting the Herts Falcons (7-15).

PTeamWLGB
1Mets211—
2Capitals13119
3Falcons71514
4Arrows51917

However, there is still some uncertainty over the upcoming play-offs.

In theory this should see the first-placed team (Mets) facing the fourth-placed team (the Arrows) in one semi-final, and second and third teams in the other, on Saturday 24th to set up the final for Sunday 25th.

However, questions still officially remain unanswered over the Arrows’ play-off eligibility following their two games against Herts Falcons on 7 July currently being determined as forfeited in favour of the Falcons. Whether this is finally confirmed to be the case is an important point, as BBF rules state that any forfeit by an NBL team disqualifies them from the post-season.

If so, the likely answer would be to give the first-placed Mets a bye which, whilst being a shame from a competitive point of view, wouldn’t be so unfair bearing in mind their regular season dominance.

AAA: Putting the ‘Wild’ into Wild Card

This is where things get complicated.

The Triple-A teams have played out their regular season games, with the exception of a double-header between Oxford Kings and Herts Londoners that was scheduled for 16 June and has not been played. The BBF’s final standings are as follows:

PTeamWLGB
1East London Latin Boys195—
2Essex Redbacks14105
3London Mammoths11138
4Oxford Kings10128
5Herts Londoners10128
6Richmond Knights91510
7Kent Buccaneers91510

The Triple-A play-offs involve the top four from the division alongside Cartmel Valley Lions (of the British Baseball League) who have the number 2 seed. Latin Boys get the first seed for winning the division, whilst Redbacks have the third seed.

The teams that finished third and fourth in the AAA division play a Wild Card game this Sunday, with the winner being the fourth seed into the National Baseball Championships.

The BBF have confirmed that game will be between the Mammoths and Kings; however the Londoners are unhappy with how the BBF’s rules on splitting tied teams at the end of the season have been applied. An official appeal has been submitted and a decision clearly needs to be made quickly.

What the Handbook says

The BBF 2019 Handbook is published on an issuu page which is supposed to make things look nice but, especially when downloading is disabled, makes it more of a pain to read (or copy and quote). Anyway, let’s break down what the Handbook says.

It confirms that a tie means either identical win-loss records or the same games back if teams have played a different number of games. Consequently it’s not just the Kings and Londoners who are tied, as the Mammoths are the same number of games back (8) even though they have an extra win (and loss) than the other two.

Breaking the Tie(s)

The first tie-breaker is forfeited games, based on the team that has forfeited the fewest number of games being higher in the standings.

The tricky thing with that from the outside is there is no clear record that a game has been forfeited in the published BBF results. In the past, forfeits have resulted in the non-forfeiting team being awarded a 7-0 win (and the forfeiting team an 0-7 loss). That doesn’t seem to be the case now, indeed the way forfeits are accounted for in the standings, particularly for the team that forfeited the game, is a bit odd (see pages 13-15 of the Handbook).

Anyway, the double-header at Oxford continues to sit in the BBF results as un-played and no results awarded. The actual decision on those is crucial to the standings.

If they are considered forfeits by the Kings then they will finish 5th (third of the three teams tied). That then leaves the Mammoths and Londoners still tied (unbroken by the forfeit rule) and they would be separated by the second tie-breaker which is results between the tied teams. The Londoners won that season series 3-1, so they would finish third and Mammoths fourth.

If the Kings-Londoners double-header is simply put to one side (rather than forfeited) then you’d need to look at the season results between the three teams, which would make the order Londoners (4-2), Mammoths (4-4), Kings (2-4).

If the double-header was considered as two forfeits by the Londoners then they would be fifth, and the Mammoths would be in third as they won the season series over the Kings 3-1. That would tally with the BBF’s standings, but the comments so far certainly don’t suggest that this is the case.

It’s clear as mud then, which is a bit of a mess ahead of the Wild Card game on Sunday. Hopefully the BBF will not only finalise the position but also clearly explain it in a news item on their website as soon as possible. That’s the only fair approach, not just for the Londoners who appear to have missed out but also on the Kings in making it clear to all how they’ve earned their play-off spot

Single-A and Double-A

These two levels still have one Sunday left of the regular season, so I’ll look back at that some time next week. Here’s what the games-back tables look like currently (noting that some tie-breakers may need to be accounted for).

Double-A Pool A

PTeamWLGB
1Bournemouth Bears140—
2Bristol Badgers1253.5
3Herts Hawks897.5
4Guildford Mavericks7119
5Richmond Dragons61210
6Brighton Jets21212

Double-A Pool B

PTeamWLGB
1London Marauders122—
2Norwich Iceni974
3London Sidewinders963.5
4Milton Keynes Bucks853.5
5Cambridge Monarchs586.5
6Brentwood Stags01512.5

I’ve just copied that one out in the same order it’s published on the BBF website, but using the standing Games Back method it would seem Iceni are in fifth. We’ll see!

Single-A Pool A

PTeamWLGB
1London Musketeers211—
2Essex Archers1665
3Essex Redbacks1665
4Bracknell Inferno1686
5London Mustangs71514
6Richmond Dukes51515
7Herts Eagles41817
8Herts Raptors31918

Single-A Pool B

PTeamWLGB
1Kent Buccaneers186—
2South Coast Pirates1841
3Brighton Jets985.5
4Tonbridge Wildcats975
5Tonbridge Bobcats7149.5
6Guildford Millers71510
7Kent Mariners11513

Again, just copied in the order as on the BBF website, but would seem that the Wildcats should be in fourth.

Single-A Central

PTeamWLGB
1Long Eaton Storm193—
2Leicester Blue Sox1752.5
3Birmingham Bandits1595
4Birmingham Outlaws1464
5Northants Centurions61412
6Cambridge Royals41815
7Cambridge Lancers12118

The Bandits and Outlaws can argue about third and fourth!

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.