{"id":15290,"date":"2013-02-07T00:01:08","date_gmt":"2013-02-07T00:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=15290"},"modified":"2013-02-28T20:06:24","modified_gmt":"2013-02-28T20:06:24","slug":"british-baseball-beat-lots-to-be-positive-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=15290","title":{"rendered":"British Baseball Beat: Lots to be positive about"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Since the last British Baseball Beat, over 50 delegates met in Birmingham at the British Baseball Federation AGM for constructive talks on the future of the domestic game.<\/p>\n

A full round-up from the day can be found on the BBF website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A report from the AGM can also be found on the Herts baseball Club website<\/a>. This rightfully emphasises the positive news of all BBF Board positions being filled and there being a commitment from teams to make youth programmes a priority.<\/p>\n

The AGM motion that caught my eye two weeks ago \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that of the AAA-North champions gaining a National Baseball League Wild Card spot \u00e2\u20ac\u201c was withdrawn by the proposers (Liverpool Trojans). That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perhaps a topic to think about in greater detail and to return to ahead of the 2014 season.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, we will get to see the Trojans pitting their baseball wits against the two-time reigning NBL champions, the Harlow Nationals, in a pre-season game. The teams are scheduled to meet on Sunday 24 March as a special event at the Leicester Spring League<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Plenty of motions were passed at the AGM, including Motion 2 in which it was agreed that the postseason format will be set before the season begins.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important for the credibility of the competition, as well as the commitment of all players, for everyone to know what they have to play for. Twitter has been abuzz recently with teams and players working hard in preparation for the season ahead and knowing the postseason format in due course will allow every club to set targets for 2013<\/p>\n

2013 leagues taking shape<\/strong><\/p>\n

The BBF Twitter account also has been ticking off teams that have registered for the coming season and in the weeks ahead we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll receive confirmation as to who will be competing at each level of British baseball.<\/p>\n

Every year brings changes, sometimes due to the disappointment of a team bowing out, but more often due to new teams joining the fold and\/or clubs progressing up through the leagues.<\/p>\n

Initial reports suggest 2013 will be no different and that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see positive growth at each level, from Milton Keynes adding a second team \u00e2\u20ac\u201c the Coyotes \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to play in Single-A, Hove Tuesday moving up to Double-A, Herts Baseball Club returning to Triple-A with a fifth team (still to be named<\/a>) and developments at the NBL level with the (Essex) Redbacks earning a promotion<\/a> to the top-tier in the club\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fourth year in existence.<\/p>\n

The Redbacks’ Chairman Matt Jennings gave a great indication of the hard-working spirit at his club when his obvious, and justified, joy in seeing the team make it into the NBL was immediately set in the context of the challenges that lay ahead:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our work is far from done, and we need to get our heads down and strive to the next level. We know it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be tough against much stronger opposition than we have faced regularly before, but we think that if we are able to hold our own this year we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be happy and look to push on for the future\u00e2\u20ac\u009d.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Redbacks can take plenty of heart from the way in which the Herts Falcons, Essex Arrows and Southampton Mustangs have moved up into the NBL in recent years. \u00c2\u00a0Seeing the Redbacks progress like this is not only great for the club, but great news for British baseball in general too.<\/p>\n

The other sort of promotion<\/strong><\/p>\n

The on-field preparations around the leagues are being joined by continued efforts to promote clubs and British baseball. BaseballSoftballUK recently published guides<\/a> to \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcLocal and Social Media\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 and \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcCreating Local Press Releases\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 written by the Redbacks\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Michael Jones to provide some useful pointers on how clubs can promote themselves even more effectively.<\/p>\n

Several teams have launched new websites recently too, such as Milton Keynes<\/a> and Cambridge Royals<\/a>, whilst the Croydon Pirates\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 website has undergone a complete overhaul to reflect the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcrebranding\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in becoming the South London Pirates<\/a>.<\/p>\n

With so much good work going on at clubs throughout the country, let’s keep the Twitter accounts active, the Facebook pages thriving and club websites and the BBF website providing regular, up-to-date news to show those not involved yet just what they could be a part of.<\/p>\n

And on that note, welcome to the Northants Baseball Club<\/a>. You’re joining a sport that’s firmly on the way up.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News from the BBF AGM and more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22,192],"tags":[556],"class_list":["post-15290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-british-baseball-2","category-british-baseball-beat","tag-british-baseball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15290"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15290\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15474,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15290\/revisions\/15474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}