Tag Archives: Great Britain

Looking forward to 2019 in British Baseball

1 Reply

As we head towards the Christmas period and the end of the year, it’s always a time to reflect on what’s happened over the past twelve months and what the new year may bring. Various bits of news last week made it a good time to do just that for baseball in Britain.

MLB London Series

Tickets went on sale last week, and quickly sold out, for the MLB London Series taking place at the London Stadium on 29-30 June 2019.  Relatively high prices, frustrating online sales process and exploitation by re-sellers and touts were all sadly to be expected and left plenty of dedicated baseball fans ticket-less and disappointed.

The unfortunate truth is that the prices are precisely why MLB is coming to London ahead of other European cities.  Although MLB will say the right things about growing the game, in truth if the primary focus was on the wider benefits of developing baseball through International Series events then their first foray into Europe may have been staged in Hoofddorp, Netherlands, a temporary venue in Rome, Italy, or in Regensburg, Germany instead. 

They are coming to London, using a multi-purpose stadium with all the compromises that brings for playing field dimensions and viewing points, because that’s where the money is and where they’ll get the most publicity.  That’s the compromise we have to accept for MLB deciding to bring games here. It’s a slightly cynical point of view, and no comfort to those who hoped to attend and found themselves priced-out, but is probably the reality.

That isn’t to take away from the potential benefits there will be for British baseball, just that this isn’t MLB’s goal and shouldn’t be expected to be. If the 2019 London Series, and the proposed follow-up in 2020, is to help grow the game on these shores then it’s up to us in the British baseball community to make that happen.  How can we use the publicity of the Yankees and Red Sox coming to London to make more people aware of the baseball that’s already here?

It will need their support, of course, and primarily in respect of what they can achieve with media coverage. We’ve seen positive reports of BBC’s interest in broadcasting the two London games and that BT Sport are working to extend their TV deal.  What we ideally need is some wider free-to-air coverage of MLB games for the 2019 season more generally, be that on TV or radio, and that’s a difficult problem to solve as we all know. We’ve not had any such coverage since the end of the BBC 5 Live Sports Extra show several years ago.  The London Series at least gives broadcasters a reason to think about adding MLB rights to capitalise on some new-found wider interest.

Great Britain Baseball misses out on funding

The standing of baseball on these shores was shown by the announcement on Thursday that the Great Britain set-up was unsuccessful in their bid to receive money from the UK Sport Aspiration Fund. 

The GB Women’s Fastpitch Team programme did receive an award of £62,500 at least, but the hope that baseball’s Olympic return for the 2020 Tokyo Games might at last end the long-running situation of our national programme receiving no such direct funding were dashed.

In the BSUK press release, GB Head Coach Liam Carroll was typically pragmatic about the development (“This is, however, a story with which we’re familiar”).  Focus will shift to the London Series and any publicity and fund raising the GB set-up can achieve alongside MLB’s event.  Even the ability to sell some GB merchandise around the stadium would be a benefit, so we’ll see how co-operative the MLB Office will be.

Next year will be an important one for the the senior national team as they are heading to Germany in September for the 2019 European Championships. GB finished ninth in the 2016 event, so we all know making the top five to qualify for the Africa/European Olympic qualifier will be a big challenge.

That was highlighted by the new Super 6 tournament staged for the first time by the Confederation of European Baseball this past September.  Featuring the widely-recognised current leading nations – tournament winners the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Spain, Belgium and the Czech Republic – it produced some very well-played baseball from what I saw via the online broadcasts. Co-operation between different national federations in Europe has long been a delicate process, yet staging events like the Super 6 is surely in the interests of all, pooling the best European teams for the highest standard of competition to further player development and to provide a great showcase for the sport.

The Great Britain baseball programme is working to get into that top group in future and the Under 23’s bronze-medal finish in the 2018 European Championship Qualifier shows what could be possible.

British teams in Europe

Easily overlooked alongside the London Series ticket launch was the BBF announcement on Monday that the 2018 National Baseball Championship finalists, the London Mets and Herts Falcons, had both accepted the CEB invitation to participate in the 2019 Federations Cup qualifiers.  These are currently scheduled to take place in Moscow, Russia, in June just a couple of weeks before the MLB London Series.

It will be a debut European tour for the Herts Baseball Club, whilst the London Mets have been earning frequent flyer points representing British baseball in recent years. The Mets put up a good showing in Bulgaria in June, finishing third in their group with a 2-2 record, whilst the Southampton Mustangs went 1-3 in their group in Poland.

The State of the British Leagues?

Ahead of the publicity that baseball will receive in Britain in 2019, how would we sum up the state of the British leagues?

As an onlooker rather than a direct participant, things seem as frustratingly disjointed as they have been for a number of years. Nothing summed that up better (not really the word to use) than the situation at the start of the season when a dispute between the British Baseball Federation (BBF) and Baseball Softball UK resulted in the BBF launching a new website at
www.britishbaseballfederation.com. 

Unsurprisingly that became a work in progress and core details such as fixtures, results and league tables were much harder to come by. We can see that the Long Eaton Storm (Single-A), East London Latin Boys (Double-A), Richmond Knights (Triple-A) and London Mets (NBL) all won their respective levels, but decent details about the seasons in each league are not so easy to find.

The biggest shame from a personal point of view is that the London Mets achieved a historic feat of capturing a record fifth top-tier title (the first team to do so in the modern era) during what is currently going to go down in the annals of British baseball history as a lost season. 2018 marked the first time in many years that even basic statistical details of the top-tier in British baseball have not been available to the national hub for baseball records at Project COBB (something that I of course declare a strong vested interest in).

Whilst developments such as the live streaming of national championship games on YouTube are greatly welcome, it’s incredibly disappointing that fixtures, results, league tables and stats are absent from the national federation’s website.

The BBF is still joined by several independent leagues in the British Baseball League, the South West Baseball League and Baseball Scotland that, from the outside at least, all seem to be fairing well. Having independent leagues is not necessarily a bad thing in an amateur sport relying on volunteers – if the independence gives an area better scope to tailor competitions that help the clubs grow and get more people playing regularly then so be it – but ideally in the context of constructive working relations between all where possible.

What’s clear is that 2019 is going to provide opportunities for British baseball to promote our sport and encourage more people to join the community, beyond taking a cursory interest in a couple of MLB games. Hopefully it will prove to be a positive year for us all that have an interest in British baseball.


The route to the 2020 Olympics is set out for European nations

Leave a reply

Everyone’s focus is mainly on club baseball at this time of year, with Major League Baseball’s Opening Day soon to be upon us and British teams playing friendlies as the gear up for the start of the domestic season in early April.

However, some significant international baseball (and softball) news has just been announced. The World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) has confirmed the qualification process for the 2020 Olympics.

Baseball and softball were last in the Olympics in 2008 and they’ve been given another chance by virtue of their popularity in the host nation, Japan.

The full details can be found in the news article on the WBSC website.  Our focus is of course on Great Britain and the potential route to an Olympic appearance for European teams.

The first challenge is to finish in the top 5 of the European Baseball Championships. Those teams will go on to an Africa/Europe qualifier alongside the winner of the African Baseball Championship/Qualifier 2019.  The winner of that six-team event will qualify for the Olympics.

The runner-up will go into a six-team Intercontinental Qualifier alongside the 2nd and 3rd Place finishers from the Americas Qualifier, the top two finishers from the Asian Championship 2019 (not including nations already qualified for Tokyo 2020) and the winner of Oceania Qualifier 2019.

So that’s the route the European teams will need to navigate to get to Tokyo 2020.  If we look at the standings from the last five European Championships we’ll see who the favourites to get through to the Africa/Euro Qualifier will be.

16P16T14P14T12P12T10P1007P07T
1Netherlands1Netherlands1Italy1Italy1 Netherlands
2Spain2Italy2Netherlands2Netherlands2 Great Britain
3Italy3Spain3Spain3Germany3 Spain
4Germany4Czech Republic4Germany4Greece4 Germany
5Czech Republic5Germany5Czech Republic5Sweden5 France
6Belgium6France6Sweden6France6 Sweden
7France7Belgium7Greece7Czech Republic7 Italy
8Sweden8Russia8France8Great Britain8 Croatia
9Great Britain9Great Britain9Belgium9Belgium9 Ukraine
10Croatia10Greece10Croatia9Spain10 Russia
11Greece11Sweden11Great Britain11Croatia11 Austria
12Russia12Croatia12Russia11Ukraine12 Czech Republic

The same five teams have been in the top five in the past three Euros: Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Germany and the Czech Republic.  Something disastrous would have to happen for the first two not to make it.  Spain had a blip in 2010, but you would expect them to at least be best of the rest and Germany haven’t been out of the top five during that period.  The Czech Republic have really raised their levels over the past 10-15 years and they’ve got three consecutive top five finishes against their name.

All of which shows the rest of the teams are going to have to go some to knock the existing top five out of Olympic contention.

Great Britain haven’t been too close to the top five in recent years so there is plenty of work to do, yet the outstanding silver medal from 2007 shows that it is possible for a team to have a great tournament and upset the odds.  Liam Carroll’s team will be aiming to do just that in Germany next year.

Weekly Hit Ground Ball: Brewers, Hoffman and more

4 Replies

January is almost over and whilst wishing away months isn’t the best approach to life, it’s understandable with the first of the year.

It normally throws up bad weather and travel problems as well as keeping you in the gloom of days beginning with going to work in the dark and then coming home in the dark too.

But most of all it doesn’t offer much baseball, other than some glimmers of light from places like Australia.

Once we cross over into February we’ll be in the month that MLB.TV prices are announced, teams start reporting back to their Spring Training camps and this year even will be the first month when teams start playing their Grapefruit/Cactus League schedules.

So long January, there’s baseball to be getting on with.

Milwaukee making moves

If you had the Milwaukee Brewers down as the team to get the Hot Stove bubbling again you were looking pretty smart on Thursday.

The Brewers not only revamped their outfield by signing Christian Yelich and Lorenzo Cain, they made the NL Central and Wild Card race a considerably more exciting prospect.

Milwaukee surprisingly spent 60 days at the top of the NL Central last season before the Cubs predictably nudged past at the end of July.  Their second-placed finish ahead of the St Louis Cardinals paled against the similarly surprising Minnesota Twins winning an AL Wild Card at first glance, yet the Brewers finished a win ahead of the Twins (86 to 85) and fell victim to a higher level of competition for the second NL Wild Card than was needed in the AL last year.

The lengthy loss of starting pitcher Jimmy Nelson to a shoulder injury put a dampener on the end of the Brewers’ 2017 and initially affected their hopes for 2018, but the team haven’t let that hold them back.

It’s always great to see a smaller market team such as the Brewers coming out of a building phase with some quality young players and then having a go for it. The excitement of their 2008 season when they traded for CC Sabathia mid-season and just fell short in the NLDS to eventual World Series champs the Philadelphia Phillies is still fresh in the memory – so much so that it was a bit of a shock to find it was a full ten years ago when looking up the details.

They pulled off another big trade in December 2010 when they acquired Zack Greinke from the Royals and then made it to the NLCS in 2011, losing 4-2 to the Cardinals.  Lorenzo Cain was one of the players the Brewers traded away in that deal, which makes his return as a free agent all the more special. Milwaukee didn’t do badly out of that trade by any stretch of the imagination, yet their fans still would have watched Cain – as well as Alcides Escobar – win a World Series with the Royals and think of what might have been.

The same may happen with Lewis Brinson, the talented young outfielder who highlighted the package they sent to the Miami Marlins for Yelich.  However, largely gone are the days when you could swing a lopsided trade for a quality Major Leaguer like Yelich.  If you want to get someone good, you have to give up a good package to do it.

The Brewers judge that they have a shot at the NL Wild Card over the next few years and are doing exactly the right thing by making a group of deals – another one or two may well be forthcoming giving their outfield logjam – rather than just making one addition and stopping there.  There’s no guarantee it will work, but it’s increasingly feeling like some Front Offices are using the lack of any guarantees – and therefore the potential for fingers to be pointed in their direction at a trade or free agent signing going wrong – as a reason to merely tinker around the edges.

You can’t get relegated in MLB so the worst that can happen is things don’t pan out, you trade some players a couple of years down the line and build again.  I love what the Brewers are doing and will continue to hold that view regardless of whether it works out for them over the next few seasons.

Hall of Fame results

Although Trevor Hoffman ended his MLB career with a two-year stop in Milwaukee, everything thinks of him as a San Diego Padre.  Few in North America would link him to Great Britain either, but we had a personal reason to cheer his election to America’s National Baseball Hall of Fame this week alongside Chipper Jones, Jim Thome and Vladimir Guerrero.

Hoffman was part of the 2016 Great Britain World Baseball Classic coaching staff and you won’t find anyone involved in the national programme saying anything other than great things about his contributions.

I started watching baseball in 1998, so I have a strong connection to the excellent Padres team of that year – Tony Gwynn, Greg Vaughn, Ken Caminiti, Kevin Brown, Andy Ashby etc – that was so ruthlessly swept aside in the World Series by a New York Yankees team that ranks as one of the greatest of all time.

Hoffman only pitched in one game during the Fall Classic, taking the loss in Game Three, and that gets to the heart of the hardcore stattos being unimpressed by his election to Cooperstown. Hoffman was a closer who racked up huge numbers of saves, a role and a statistic that many analysts put little store in nowadays when evaluating performance.

I understand the argument, yet it doesn’t take into account the important point that the Hall of Fame is not simply determined by who were statistically the greatest players, otherwise there would be no point in deciding election by a vote.  It is there to recognise historic and memorable contributions to the game.  During the era in which he played, I always saw Hoffman and Mariano Rivera – who few would argue against being a first-ballot election next year – as consistently being the two leading lights in their role as closer.

To say saves didn’t matter, and that Hoffman being the first ever player to reach 500 then 600 count for nothing, has an analytical validity but doesn’t reflect how the vast majority of baseball fans enjoyed his career at the time.  It’s a personal choice for someone to disregard that, yet it’s also a personal choice to decide to take that into account.

Hoffman always stood out to me in part because any appearance or reference to him always led to Baseball on 5 presenter Jonny Gould mentioning that the pitcher’s mother was British. We don’t have all that many links to Major Leaguers, so that always made him a player to watch out for even if he wasn’t on your own team.

Now we can say we have a direct GB link to Cooperstown. I wonder if there will be a Union Flag or two at the ceremony this summer?

The Gouldfish Hall of Fame show?

Given the ever-present Chipper Jones figure that Braves-fan Gould ensured was always on the Baseball on 5 desk, the Hall of Fame announcement sparked the first time this year, and far from the last, that I thought of their MLB coverage with a smile.

Maybe Josh Chetwynd and Dave Lengel can convince their old pal to do a special one-off podcast for the Cooperstown weekend?!

GB pitcher signs with the Cubs

Further on the Great Britain theme, Michael Roth – member of the Great Britain 2012 and 2016 World Baseball Classic teams and the 2014 European Championships – has signed a Minor League deal with the Chicago Cubs.

The former College World Series hero for South Carolina has never quite kept hold of a Major League job in short Big League spells with the Angels and Rangers.  He pitched in Triple-A last year for the Sacramento River Cats (Giants) and Durham Bulls (Rays) and likely will be stationed at that level with the Iowa Cubs this season.

Roth qualifies for the GB squad by virtue of his mother being British. His GB stats can be found in the Project Cobb archive.

Hardball Times Annual -free to download

I had been searching for news on the 2018 Hardball Times Annual for a while, not finding either the new edition available anywhere on the usual book websites or anything on Fangraphs/Hardball Times to say the annual has ceased to be.

It turns out that the Annual is still alive and well but is now being released digitally.  And for completely free!

I’ve reviewed the 2010 and 2011 editions in the past – I think I stopped reviewing them just because they are always great so wasn’t much more to say – and a quick check of my baseball book shelves shows that I’ve been buying it consistently since 2006.  You really can’t beat it for a strong collection of baseball writing, from reviewing the previous season to research articles, history and – new for this year – a baseball fiction section.

Honestly, I always prefer a physical book but if this is the best way to keep the annual going then that’s fine with me. It’s well worth downloading and diving into during February.

2017 British Baseball Hall of Fame class announced

Leave a reply

Carter, Young and Smallwood join the British Baseball Hall of Fame

The 2017 elections to the British Baseball Hall of Fame have introduced three new inductees, increasing the class to 32.

Nick Carter and Ian Young were inducted from the modern ballot, with Don Smallwood MBE being elected by the historical vetting panel that was introduced in 2016.

Carter and Young are two of the most decorated Great Britain national team players of the past thirty years. The former was a mainstay on the GB team between 1996 and 2005, competing in six European Championships, whilst twice being the starting and winning pitcher in a decisive national championship game for the Brighton Buccaneers (1999 and 2001).

Young’s Great Britain career lasted 13 years between 2000 and 2013, the highlight of which being his ‘All-Tournament’ team performances for the side that won a silver medal at the 2007 European Championship.

Smallwood’s involvement in British baseball spanned six decades, during which he achieved considerable success as a player, most notably on the formidable Hull Aces teams of the 1960s and 1970s, and even more in a wide variety of administrative roles.  Upon passing on the news of his election, sadly I learned that he passed away earlier this year at the age of 84.

Full details about the three new members of the Hall, alongside bios for the other 29 already elected, can be found on the BBHoF website: http://www.bbhof.org.uk/

I’ve been involved in the BBHoF for several years and have now stepped up to the role of Chair. I’m taking over from Joe Gray who has done a huge amount of invaluable work over the past decade, both directly on the Hall of Fame and the wider Project for the Chronicling of British Baseball (Project COBB).

Thankfully Joe’s still involved as Secretary and I’m indebted to all his support and help provided.  I’ve got a list of research topics and Hall of Fame work ready for the off-season, so keep an eye out for those here on this website and at Project COBB.

If you’re interested in getting involved in looking at the game’s history on these shores, please do get in contact either via the comments below or using the contact details on the Project COBB website.

Here’s to 2017

Leave a reply

I’ve been on a writing hiatus since October, leaving the incredible World Series to speak for itself, allowing the Collective Bargaining Agreement process to play-out and letting the first couple of months of an underwhelming free agent class pass by without comment.

It’s tough when the baseball season comes to an end because it’s such an all-encompassing endeavour, watching games every day, that the absence of any action really hits hard and all of the transaction rumours feel like a very poor substitute.

It’s a hard stretch of cold turkey, but things always seem brighter once we’ve enjoyed the hot turkey at Christmas and the calendar flips to a new year. We’re in 2017 now and that means the 2017 baseball season is officially on its way.

I’ve put together some plans to get the website back into fighting shape so that there will once again be regular features on MLB and British baseball, in a way that I haven’t been able to dedicate myself to for the last two or three seasons, and I’m really excited about all that there will be to enjoy this year.

So, why not start off 2017 by looking at things we won’t enjoy this year?

No Great Britain team in the World Baseball Classic

Watching Great Britain in the WBC qualifier last September was one of my baseball highlights of 2016. It would have been brilliant to be sat here now looking forward to Liam Carroll’s team heading to Seoul, Korea, competing in the WBC full tournament for the first time.

Unfortunately, despite a great effort to make the final, Israel were worthy winners of the qualifying tournament and it is they who will be joining South Korea, Chinese Taipei and the Netherlands in Pool A.

However that tinge of disappointment won’t stop me enjoying the WBC event. Every year we all get a week into Spring Training and then remember how long a month March always feels waiting for the ‘real’ games to get going. The WBC provides genuine passion and excitement and gives the month a completely different tone.

Anticipation for the event really starts to escalate at this time of year as the rosters start to take shape, with the United States team in particularly looking to have more leading players (at this stage at least) than in previous tournaments. It’s sure to be another thrilling event and one that will kick off the baseball season in style.

No MLB game in London

The high hopes that MLB games would be played in London during 2017 were dashed in the middle of last season when it was announced that this would be postponed. It was easy to be despondent and to wonder if the dream would ever become a reality.

Thankfully, the Collective Bargaining Agreement concluded in December eased those fears with a clear commitment from MLB owners and players in respect of playing games outside of the U.S. and with London being specifically mentioned.

Reports just before Christmas put forward the tantalising prospect of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry heading to London in 2018. Logic suggests that east coast teams are more likely to make the trip and bringing across a ‘big’ team or two would be important in selling the event from a public relations point of view (much as us baseball enthusiasts would love any MLB teams to come here).

My guess is if there are games played here in 2018 then they will be Tampa Bay Rays home games against a team like the Yankees or Red Sox, purely on the basis that they have the lowest home attendance in MLB (an average of 15,878 in 2016), with a potential Yankees-Red Sox match-up (or Mets-Nationals) as a follow-up event a year or two later.

No 100+ year Cubs World Series drought to write about

Where there is a pleasure there is pain and sadly for Chicago’s north-siders the joy of their World Series win in 2016 means they can no longer embrace their ‘lovable losers’ status.

I’m sure their fans are absolutely devastated by that!

As I write this, the lead story on ESPN’s MLB page is a fun open letter to Cubs fans speaking for Yankees and Red Sox fans.

The Boston comparison is the most meaningful because they were similarly under the fabled spell of a curse. The long wait for a World Series was a part of being a Red Sox fan, just as it was for the Cubs, and whilst Boston fans no doubt will be quick to confirm that winning isn’t all bad, it will take some adjusting to for fans in Chicago.

Great Britain aim for World Baseball Classic in Sunday night qualifier versus Israel

Leave a reply

Long distance drivers and those operating heavy machinery can be exempt, but for every other type of British baseball fan let’s agree on one thing: your boss/teacher won’t be too upset if you’re a little tired just for one Monday at work/school.

First pitch for Great Britain’s game against Israel is set for just after 23.00 BST and it’s one you’re not going to want to miss. A win would see GB qualify for the full World Baseball Classic tournament for the first time. The game is being streamed live, for free, on worldbaseballclassic.com.

Great Britain’s 4-3 victory over Brazil in the early hours of Sunday morning, UK time, was a thriller and we can expect more of the same tonight.

Chris Reed battled brilliantly on the mound, getting into a few scrapes but finding his way out of them during his 4.2 innings pitched, none more so than the stunning back-to-back strike-outs to get out of a bases loaded jam in the eighth inning.

The Brazil win was set up by a convincing 14-0 victory against Pakistan, who were always likely to be the tournament underdogs. Greg Hendrix followed up his good pitching in the Euros with four shut-out innings and the British bats kept adding on runs after a score-less first frame.

Great Britain’s 5-2 loss to Israel in the first game put their backs against the wall, but that has seemed to bring out the best in them. It was a close game that could have gone either way, with Michael Roth pitching superbly over his six innings, before Israel got to the British bullpen – with a few fortunate bounces along the way – to edge it.

Israel were able to throw experienced Major League pitchers at GB in the form of Jason Marquis, Josh Zeid and Craig Breslow.

They deliberately kept all three below the 50-pitch mark so that they could play in the final qualifier; however, the British hitters now have the benefit of having seen them from the batter’s box only a few days ago. They’ll know what’s coming at them from the pitcher’s mound and the speedsters will also have a better idea of what they do from the stretch to help in reading potential pick-offs at first base.

That’s not to downplay the challenge in front of GB though. GB Head Coach Liam Carroll doesn’t have the luxury of sending a 15-MLB season veteran like Marquis to the mound and instead will be trusting in Spencer Kreisberg, who earns his living as a High School PE teach in California.

Yet this is what ‘the GB way’ is all about. Kreisberg helped the Southampton Mustangs capture their first ever National Baseball League title this summer. He’s already seen teammate Rei Martinez strike out ex-Major Leaguers Nate Freiman and Ike Davis back-to-back in the first encounter between the two teams, whilst another Mustang Maikel Azcuy got himself a pinch-hit double against Pakistan.

The commitment and passion showed by all the GB players is great to see, but it’s extra special to see guys who have played for British teams on such a big stage.

Given the pitching options open to Israel, and the potential power they have in their line-up, it would be fair to peg them as slight favourites heading into this decisive game. The win against Brazil already means Great Britain have bettered their performance in the WBC qualifier four years ago, so whatever happens the team can be rightly proud of how they’ve done.

But GB have just played two ‘must win’ games and come out on the right side of both of them. Why not make it a fabulous three and book a place in South Korea next March?

Make sure you’re watching from 23.00 tonight to see if they can do it.

Reports of GB’s three games can be found on the BBF website.

Video highlights, and the full archived games, can be found on the WBC website.

Great Britain end the Euros with two wins to secure 2018 automatic qualification

Leave a reply

euro2016logoGreat Britain ended a challenging 2016 European Championship by earning back-to-back wins against Croatia and Greece to ensure they will be in the main event again in two years’ time without needing to go through a qualification pool.

It means that they will head on to the World Baseball Classic qualifier in Brooklyn in a positive frame of mind after an event that can be summed up in one word: frustrating.

The opening night loss to a clearly superior Netherlands team was no great shame or surprise. It was the following three losses against the Czech Republic, Germany and Sweden that were more difficult to swallow. Great Britain were in with a chance of winning all three and came out of every one with nothing but an L to add to the standings.

The extra-inning loss against Sweden was the most painful as the team had fought brilliantly to recover from a 5-0 deficit and then lost out under the international extra-inning rules (in which runners are placed on first and second base to start the inning), which are a bit of a lottery. The following 11-5 loss to Russia – fairly described as a disaster in the sporting context of the word – was a complete sickener even considering that their opponents had shown their ability by running the Netherlands close earlier in the Pool (a very creditable 3-1 loss).

There were moments when the pitching got away from GB during those games, but the batting lineup only managed four extra-base hits combined in the five Pool games and it’s difficult to win games relying on needing to get every run home in installments.

Player performances

The stand-out player with the bat for Great Britain was veteran Richard Klijn. This was Klijn’s fourth Euros and by far his best as he started all seven games and led the team with a .364 batting average (12-for-33), particularly doing damage against right-handed pitching (11-for-26, .423). He capped off his strong tournament by hitting his first major international tournament home run in the final game against Greece.

Chris Berset and Nate Thomas also went deep against the Greeks, with Thomas’ team-leading .696 slugging percentage being complemented by the five score-less innings he pitched in his start against Russia.

Pitching performances across a short international tournament are always subject to quite a bit of variation due to the differing levels of competition, and situations, pitchers face. To pick out a few notable performances:

  • Daniel Cooper (5IP, 2 R, 0ER) and London Met Conrad Cornell (3IP, 1R) combined for a very well-pitched game against Germany. Cornell also pitched three good innings in the win against Croatia.
  • Greg Hendrix kept GB’s hopes alive in the game against the Czech Republic with four score-less innings,
  • The Southampton Mustangs’ Rei Martinez held Sweden to one run over his five innings pitched
  • Cody Chartrand laid the foundations for GB’s first win of the tournament with his start against Croatia (6IP, 5H, 0R).

A satisfactory tournament

The goal for Great Britain is to be able to go into events like the European Championship and challenge for a medal. The 2016 Euros showed that the team has plenty of development to get to that stage – something that will not come as a surprise nor something that will discourage those involved from continuing to work hard to achieve this ambition in the years ahead.

If we are being realistic in terms of grading Great Britain’s tournament, a medal would have been fantastic, finishing in the top three of their Pool would have been very good, being ‘best-of-the-rest’ and involved in the 7th/8th-placed game would have been good and ensuring EC 2018 qualification would have been satisfactory.

Describing the Euros as a satisfactory event for Great Britain seems fair. The results didn’t go as well as they might have, but the first goal of keeping out of the qualifiers was achieved. That this was done with a roster that included 12 players from British teams (with 2 others who played some games in Britain this season) is encouraging with ‘the GB Way’ initative still in its early years.

The team showed a lot of character in bouncing back from the Russia defeat to gain two important victories. Head Coach Liam Carroll, the coaching staff and players can be proud of that and take that on to Brooklyn next week.

Game reports and additional coverage can be found via the Team GB section on the BBF website.

Stats can be found on the CEB 2016 European Championship website.

Small margins leave Great Britain 0-3 at the Euros

Leave a reply

euro2016logoGreat Britain’s hopes of making it through to the second stage of the 2016 European Championships were dashed on Sunday due to a narrow 3-2 defeat against Germany.

I noted in my preview that the schedule had given Great Britain the three best teams in the pool for their first three games. Winning one out of the three would have still given them a good shot heading into Games Four and Five against Sweden and Russia respectively.

Now, Liam Carroll’s team will instead aim to get two wins to finish fourth in Pool A and set up a 7th/8th-placed showdown on Wednesday, most likely against Belgium.

Two tough defeats

It’s the nature of tournament play that small details can make a big difference.

It was expected that the Netherlands would simply be too strong in the opening game, and so it proved with an 11-1, seven-inning defeat, but the losses against the Czech Republic (4-1) and Germany (3-2) were all the more frustrating due to how well Great Britain competed in those games.

Sunday’s game against Germany – based on the excellent online radio coverage by Tim Collins on meinsportradio.de – was a real kick in the gut, especially after the Czech loss made it a must-win match.

You sometimes get moments in games when you see a good opportunity go begging and worry that it might come back to haunt you. That’s exactly how I felt in the middle of the fifth inning of this one. GB had a 2-1 lead heading into the top of the fifth and loaded the bases with one out. A clean base-hit to the outfield, likely scoring two runs, would have given the team a small but important cushion and really grabbed hold of the advantage.

Unfortunately, Chris Berset, making his tournament debut after jetting in from his Triple-A team, saw his potential hit end up in the German second-baseman’s glove and then Brett Rosen grounded-out back to the pitcher to end the inning. Germany then came to bat in the bottom half of the inning and scored a run to level things at 2-2.

Although Great Britain were still firmly in the game at that point, it felt like a golden opportunity missed. Credit should go to the German pitcher Maurice Wilhelm for coming out of the bullpen and getting his team out of an almighty jam, but on such moments do tight games turn and on this occasion it turned the wrong way for British fans.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, the German shortstop Schuz bunted his way on, was sacrificed to second, moved to third on a fielder’s choice before being singled home by first baseman Boldt. It was a dose of ‘Deutsch kleiner ball’ and, try as they did to rally, it proved fatal to Britain’s chances.

How things could go from here

It should be a very competitive game against Sweden on Monday (13.30 start BST). They are 1-2 (their win coming against Russia) and theoretically still have a chance of progressing; however a German win against Russia on Monday would mean they would finish ahead of Sweden even if they both ended up on 3-2 records (as Germany’s 4-0 win over Sweden would be the tie-breaker).

Similarly, if Great Britain beat Russia in Game Five then fourth place would hinge on the GB-Sweden result (either Sweden winning and securing it before the Game Five results, or GB winning and having the tie-breaker over Sweden even if they were able to beat the Netherlands in Game Five).

The fly in the ointment with all this is that whilst Russia are 0-3 underdogs, they put up a tremendous fight against the Netherlands on Sunday and only lost 3-1.  Pencilling in wins for Germany and GB would be asking for trouble.

Still a good result to be had

Let’s leave potential scenarios from other teams to one side and simply state the best-case scenario for Great Britain from here. Two pool wins would lead to a 7th/8th placed match and if they won that then they would come away with a 3-3 record. That would be a very good tournament based on where we are on the GB development curve, so let’s not be too disheartened with the 0-3 start, especially given how the team has performed.

Monday’s game against Sweden is another chance to get a win on the board. There are plenty of ABBA-related puns to plunder whichever way the result goes. Hopefully it’s Great Britain who will be the winner taking it all rather than the team sending out an S.O.S.

Great Britain gear up for the 2016 European Championships

1 Reply

euro2016logoAn exciting month for British baseball gets underway on Friday.

Great Britain will begin their European Championship campaign at the impressive Hoffdorp, Netherlands, ballpark against the host nation. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m. local time, 6 p.m. BST.

As in 2012, Great Britain’s involvement in the marquee World Baseball Classic later in the month could lead some to think that the Euros will be a mere warm-up exercise for the main event.

However, such thoughts are far from the minds of Head Coach Liam Carroll and his team. Their aim is to win a medal at the tournament and whilst this will be a tough task, such ambitious intent will surely bode well for both competing at the Euros and preparing for the WBC.

The format

This year’s European Championship consists of 12 teams split into two pools of six. Great Britain are in Pool A and their first objective is to do well enough in their five group games to finish in the top three in their pool and qualify for the next round. GB’s schedule is as follows:

Friday 9th, 19:00 (local time) – Netherlands (10)
Saturday 10th, 14:30 – Czech Republic (14)
Sunday 11th, 15:45 – Germany (20)
Monday 12th, 14:30 – Sweden (28)
Tuesday 13th, 11:00 – Russia (22)

Take one hour off to get the start time from the UK.

The numbers next to the teams are their current position in the World Baseball Softball Confederation rankings. These take into consideration performance of youth teams as well as the senior set-up, and like all such rankings should be taken with a pinch of salt, but we have to start by acknowledging that GB (30) are the lowest ranked nation in the pool. The team will be confident that they can prove that such a ranking is not representative of the talent they possess.

The task ahead

What can’t be denied is that Great Britain will have few opportunities to ease their way into the tournament. The first three games are against the reigning champions (the Netherlands, who have also won seven of the nine previous European Championships held in their country), the fourth-placed team from the 2014 event (Czech Republic) and the bronze medal winners (Germany).

The second game could be the most important. The Netherlands and Germany are good bets to take two of the top three places, but GB beat the Czech Republic 6-1 the last time they played in 2012 and if they could win their match-up this time around then a 1-2 record with Sweden and Russia to come would still give them a good chance of progressing. Great Britain beat Sweden 7-1 in the group stage two years ago and also got the better of Russia in their most recent meeting (a 6-2 win in 2012).

However, let’s not count out those games against the Netherlands and Germany. A big pressure opener against the host nation can sometimes be exactly the type of challenge that a team can rise to. Great Britain did exactly that in 2007 when they shocked Spain 12-8 in the tournament opener and ended up claiming a silver medal, equalling the team’s best ever performance at the event.

The roster

Details of the playing and coaching staff can be found on the BBF website.

Two years ago at the Euros Spencer Kreisberg pitched a superb eight innings in the aforementioned victory over Sweden. He’s back on the roster – as well as the WBC roster – fresh off helping the Southampton Mustangs capture their first British National Baseball League championship.

And when GB shut-out Croatia in 2014 it was Jake Esch who starred with a seven-inning pitching masterclass (10K’s, 0 hits or walks allowed). Just two weeks ago, Jake made his Major League debut for the Miami Marlins.

It will be exciting to see which players stamp their names in the online GB Baseball history books this time around.

How you can follow the event

It’s been announced that some of the games will be broadcast live (and in English) on the German online sports radio station http://meinsportradio.de. The first batch of games selected include Great Britain’s games against the Netherlands and Germany.

The official CEB tournament website will have a live play-by-play service running for all games (an old school MLB Gameday is the best way to describe it), whilst no doubt we will be able to keep up with reports via the GB Baseball Twitter feed: https://twitter.com/GB_Baseball.

Around the horn

First – The team will be displaying a new Lion logo and some very fetching uniforms. An online shop will be open soon so that you can support the GB cause in more ways than one. Much as I love my old GB cap (as evidenced by my Twitter pic), I’m definitely going to have to upgrade to the new version.

Second – If you want some background to the GB set-up, you can listen to an excellent in-depth interview with Liam Carroll on the Bat Flips and Nerds podcast:

Third – We shouldn’t overlook that it’s not just the national team representing Great Britain at the Euros. Veteran National Baseball League umpire Petter Nordwall is on the tournament umpiring crew.

Home – As well as the upcoming Team GB online shop, you can support the set-up directly be contributing to and/or publicising the GB Baseball Go Fund Me campaign.

MLB legend Trevor Hoffman joins Great Britain’s coaching staff for World Baseball Classic qualifier

Leave a reply

As with all British baseball fans of the same era, ‘Baseball on 5’ still has a place in my heart.

Watching ballgames just isn’t quite the same without the many little quirks that we came to feel were an integral part of enjoying a late night/early morning game:- ‘Seventh-inning stretch’ features, ‘Hardcore’ shout-outs, presenter Jonny Gould hastily trying to hide his chocolate wrappers as the show went back to the studio just a bit quicker than he thought, among many others.

Things regularly happen in baseball that make me think back to those days with much fondness. This Monday evening provided the latest example.

There were many reasons to take an interest in star closer Trevor Hoffman during his illustrious career, but there was one fact about him that couldn’t go unsaid every time his name came up on Baseball on 5.

Hoffman’s mother was English.

I forget precisely where in England she was from (Stockport rings a bell – Hells Bells of course – although I’ve nothing to back that up other than that being my memory and having no clue why I might have plumped for Stockport if it was somewhere else), but a USA Today feature on him confirms that his mother Mikki met Trevor’s father in London before moving to the States.

This factoid came to mind because of an exciting announcement on the Great Britain Twitter account:

Having such an experienced and outstanding ex-MLB player on the coaching staff is a real coup for Great Britain.

We’ve seen Hall-of-Famers Bert Blyleven and Mike Piazza sharing their wisdom with the Netherlands and Italy teams respectively in previous World Baseball Classics and Hoffman – who received 67.3% support in his first time on the Hall-of-Fame ballot this year and seems certain to be elected to Cooperstown in the next few years – can play the same role for Great Britain.

GB will be competing against Brazil, Israel and Pakistan in Brooklyn, New York over 22-25 September as they aim to qualify for the main World Baseball Classic tournament for the first time.