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Tomorrow is ‘playoff day’ in British baseball.\u00c2\u00a0 Twelve teams will battle it out at six venues across the country to determine the final six entrants to the 2009 National Baseball Championships.<\/p>\nTomorrow is ‘playoff day’ in British baseball.\u00c2\u00a0 Twelve teams will battle it out at six venues across the country to determine the final six entrants to the 2009 National Baseball Championships.<\/p>\n
There are four broad levels of play in the British Baseball Federation (BBF).\u00c2\u00a0 The National Baseball League (NBL) is at the top of the pyramid followed by AAA, AA and A, as used in the Minor League set-up in the States.\u00c2\u00a0 Each level of play has a National Baseball Championship (NBC) involving four teams.\u00c2\u00a0 The entrants for the NBL and AAA have already been determined by the regular season and two of the AA teams are also confirmed.\u00c2\u00a0 Tomorrow’s round of playoff games will determine the other two AA teams and the four A teams.<\/p>\n
In AA, Brentwood Stags face Mildehall Bulldogs at the United States Air Force base, while Halton Jaguars travel to Jarrett Field to play against Kent Mariners.\u00c2\u00a0 The four playoff games in A are: Leicester Blue Sox @ Bolton Robots of Doom, Humber Pilots @ MK Bucks, Guildford Mavericks @ Bracknell Blazers and Richmond Flames @ Essex Arrows.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n
Four levels of play over six leagues The four Southern leagues directly reflect the four levels of play and the teams that qualify for the postseason go through to the equivalent postseason level (e.g. A South go on to the A postseason etc).\u00c2\u00a0 In previous years, this was replicated in the North (e.g. there was an NBL North division and an NBL South division); however it was decided this year to combine the Northern teams into a single conference.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n No teams from the North go through to the NBL postseason.\u00c2\u00a0 The top two teams qualify for the AAA postseason, the third and fourth-placed teams go on to AA and the fifth and sixth to A. Menwith Hill Patriots finished fourth in the Northern Conference, but decided not to compete in the postseason. That has pushed Halton and Bolton up a spot and allowed Humber Pilots to claim the final position.<\/p>\n The Midlands League, revamped for 2009, in effect sits between AA and A.\u00c2\u00a0 Here, the top two teams at the end of the regular season move on to the AA postseason and the third and fourth-placed teams move on to A.<\/p>\n NBL and AAA are set<\/strong><\/p>\n The top four of the five NBL South teams qualified for the NBC.\u00c2\u00a0 Only the bottom team missed out and the Croydon Pirates plummeted to that position by going winless throughout the season.<\/p>\n Richmond Flames and London Mets both compiled 17-7 records during the regular season.\u00c2\u00a0 The Flames took the regular season crown, denying London a second successive league championship in the process, on account of their head-to-head record against the Mets.\u00c2\u00a0 Bracknell Blazers came in third with a 14-10 record, while Herts Falcons finished with a .500 season (12-12).\u00c2\u00a0 The Falcons can consider that to be a notable achievement in their first year in the top tier of British baseball.<\/p>\n The AAA NBC will be competed between the top two teams from both the Northern Conference and the AAA (South) League. Harrogate Tigers will host the event after finishing top of the North with a 20-1 record.\u00c2\u00a0 They won the league by 3.5 games over the Liverpool Trojans, whose second-placed finish was a welcome turnaround after a tough 2008 campaign.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Essex Arrows completed a memorable unbeaten regular season in AAA (South).\u00c2\u00a0 Their 25-0 record has already put them in contention to make the step up to the NBL in 2010 and winning the Championship could turn that into a certainty.\u00c2\u00a0 The second-placed Southampton Mustangs also impressed with a 21-5 season and having qualified for the NBC, they may just come up the rails and snatch the glory away from their rivals.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n AA League – Two in, two more needed Tie-breaking rules also came into play in the AA South as three teams finished at the top of the league with 14-6 records.\u00c2\u00a0 Croydon Pirates III were the team to miss out in heartbreaking fashion, rounding out a disappointing year for the Pirates organization.\u00c2\u00a0 Kent Mariners and Brentwood Stags finished first and second respectively to go through to tomorrow’s playoff stage.\u00c2\u00a0 The Mariners will host the\u00c2\u00a0Halton Jaguars\u00c2\u00a0from the Northern Conference, while the Stags travel to the other US Air Force team from the Midlands: Mildenhall Bulldogs. Each pairing will play a nine-inning game and the two winners will progress to the NBC.<\/p>\n A League – all to play for<\/strong><\/p>\n The same single playoff game format is used for the A League, only in this case all of the NBC competitors will have to make it through tomorrow’s Sunday showdown first.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n Two of the games will be between the four postseason qualifiers from the A South League.\u00c2\u00a0 They are the three Pool winners (Bracknell Blazers, 12-0, Essex Arrows, 10-2, and Richmond Flames, 7-4) and the wild card (Guildford Mavericks, 6-6).\u00c2\u00a0 The Blazers and Arrows have been kept apart, the formers hosts the Mavericks and the latter hosts the Flames, and are the favourites to head on to the NBC. However, both the Mavericks and the Flames are certainly capable of upsetting the odds in a ‘best-of-one’ format.<\/p>\n The other two playoff games match teams from the Midlands with teams from the Northern Conference.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s particularly difficult to predict how these games will turn out as there is no easy way to compare the standards of the two leagues based on their regular season records.\u00c2\u00a0 The only way you can do so is by pitting the teams against each other. That subplot should make these two games even more interesting.<\/p>\n Leicester Blue Sox reached the playoffs despite a 4-16 regular season record in the Midlands, but they faced strong competition from the Braves and Bulldogs and Bolton Robots of Doom won’t be taking them lightly, even though they compiled a 10-12 record.\u00c2\u00a0 MK Bucks managed to end the season with a winning record in the Midlands (12-8), while their opponents Humber Pilots went 10-14.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\nNewcomers to British baseball should be aware that although there are four levels of play, there are actually six different leagues: four in the south, a Midlands League and a Northern Conference.<\/p>\n
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\nAlconbury Braves and Manchester A’s have avoided the playoff stage and gone straight into the AA NBC.\u00c2\u00a0 The Braves won the Midlands League in their first year as part of the BBF system, finishing with an impressive 15-5 record.\u00c2\u00a0 Manchester A’s qualified thanks to their third-placed finish in the Northern Conference, only missing out on second (and a spot in the AAA NBC) on account of conceding more runs in their head-to-head games against the Trojans.<\/p>\n