Baseball in the United Kingdom

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Baseball is a growing, minor sport in the United Kingdom, with an estimated 3,000 (baseball only) participants in 2011^[1] rising to over 22,000 (combined) softball and baseball participants by 2016.^[2]

The sport is governed by the British Baseball Federation, which runs a multi-tier national league. There are also independent regional leagues, and around 20 universities field teams currently in existence. In 1938 the Great Britain national baseball team won the Baseball World Cup, and were runners-up in the 1967 and 2007 European Baseball Championship. As of 2020 Great Britain competed internationally at under 12, under 15, under 18, under 23 and senior levels. The under 23 team placed fifth at the 2019 European Under 23 Baseball Championship.^[3]

Despite relatively low numbers of participation in the United Kingdom, there have been a number players to have played in the MLB.^[4] Amongst over 90 British and Irish players to have played in the MLB ^[5] Danny Cox, Lance Painter and Bobby Thomson are notable. Thomson hit the Shot Heard 'Round the World that took the New York Giants to the World Series in 1951.

A number of high profile MLB players who can trace their ancestry to Britain and who qualified to represent the Great Britain national team despite never residing in the United Kingdom include former British national team coach and Hall of Fame inductee Trevor Hoffman, whose mother was English and whose grandfather was a professional footballer with Southend United.^[6]

History[]

Origins[]

It is argued that modern "American baseball" can trace its roots to 18th century Britain,^[7][8][9] with the earliest known mention and illustration of the game appearing in John Newbery's A Little Pretty Pocket-Book in 1744. The earliest known rules were printed in 1796, in Germany, as "Das Englische Base-ball". For a fuller context of the origins of baseball games in Britain see British baseball.

Although early varieties of baseball may have originated in Britain, modern baseball, as Americans would understand it, started to be played in Britain as early as the 1870s and it was fully developed by 1890, when the National Baseball League of Great Britain and Ireland was established. Professional baseball was especially popular in Britain during the 1930s and it enjoyed a heyday before the Second World War, but the outbreak of war led to a decline. Since the 1870s exhibition matches between American teams have been staged in Britain,^[10] culminating in the MLB London Series in 2019, which sold out 120,000 tickets in less than an hour.^[11] As a result a number of MLB teams have small but dedicated fan clubs in the United Kingdom.

American influence in the 19th century[]

In the 1870s, baseball teams from the United States, including the Boston Red Stockings and Philadelphia Athletics, toured the United Kingdom, in an effort to popularise the sport,^[12] but with limited success. At that time, John Wisden and Co. were the most famous supplier of essential baseball equipment, "as used by the baseball clubs now in England in all their matches", which shows that organised clubs did exist in England in some form as early as the 1870s.^[13] Wisden remains a prominent name in international cricket today.

In 1888 the President of St. Louis, on returning to the United States from their European tour, remarked that "England is now educated up to American sports", and encouraged other American baseball club presidents to continue promoting the game in England.^[14] Later in 1888, John Barnes, of the Western League St. Paul club, discussed his plans to travel to England to establish a "baseball syndicate" in London, Birmingham and other large cities.^[15]

In 1889 the wealthy Albert Goodwill Spalding used his position as a former star player and as a leading sporting goods supplier to arrange yet another tour of the United Kingdom by American baseball stars including the Chicago White Stockings,^[16] building on the earlier tours in the past decades. As with previous tours the cricket establishment of England was used to promote baseball, with the Prince of Wales one of the "very large number of spectators" to witness the game at the Oval,^[17] and over 8,000 attended a game at Lord's.^[18] On arriving at Bristol, Spalding paid tribute to the English cricket star W. G. Grace,^[19] "the best known Englishman in the world".

Derby Baseball Club were one of Britain's leading baseball teams in the 1890s

This tour led to a number of new baseball clubs springing up, such as York Baseball Club, formed at Stotts Refreshment Rooms in Parliament Street as early as March 1889.^[20] The most notable of these new clubs was formed 1890, in Derby, as Ley's Recreation Club, by Francis Ley, a local man who had experienced the game on a trip to the United States. Following their first ever game (as Ley's Recreation Club) Ley began to appeal for "professionals aged 20 to 25" and "cricketers who can field smartly" to attend Ley's Recreation Centre to form a club, in March 1890^[21] and Ley's Recreation Club became Derby Baseball Club. Despite evidence showing clubs such as York were formed slightly earlier than or at the same time as Derby, Ley erroneously claimed “we were really the first club formed in Great Britain” when discussing Derby in 1890.^[22]

Ley, who certainly had “introduced baseball amongst his employees”^[23] and was instrumental in providing superb facilities at Derby, was not in attendance in October 1889, when noted supporters of a new National League of Baseball of Great Britain met at the Criterion, London, to formally establish the new baseball association, though he was elected as a provisional officer. Representatives of Preston North End, Gloucester County Cricket Club, Essex County Cricket Club, Staffordshire County Cricket Club, Aston Villa and the National Rounders Association all were represented and elected as officers to the association, with Newton Crane elected to the chair.^[23]

The new association quickly moved to establish a headquarters at 38 Holborn Viaduct, London, from where it would agree on and promote a set of rules by which the new National League would be played.^[24] By July 1890 it was estimated that there were over 90 baseball clubs in England alone, with Derby Baseball Club being widely believed to be the best professional club in England.^[25] Yorkshire proved to be a surprising hotbed of baseball by 1890 when it was reported that “there are more baseball clubs in Yorkshire than in any other county in England.”^[26] It was not totally unexpected when the Secretary of Essex County Cricket Club, Morton Peto Betts, resigned his position to take up the role of Secretary of the newly formed Baseball Association of Great Britain, in July 1890.^[27]

Aston Villa, now known exclusively as a football club, won the only professional baseball championship in 1890. The competition was hindered by poor weather and disappointing crowds and made a loss for its investors.^[28] Aston Villa's win was not without controversy, however, with both Aston Villa and Preston North End being found guilty of cheating during the season.^[29] For much of the season Derby Baseball Club did lead the championship, however, pressure from other teams in the league over the number of American players on the Derby team and low attendances led to Derby being expelled before the end of the season, though at the time the club insisted they had "retired" as champions,^[30] despite evidence to the contrary.

In response to the accusations against Derby of employing too many talented American baseball players, Ley wrote letters to editors of newspapers to state “Derby Baseball Club is the only one of the four League clubs to have not imported professional players from America” and went to lengths to point out the lack of support Spalding provided to Derby compared to the other clubs, which he was a major shareholder in.^[22] Ironically, given the finger pointing at Ley for employing too many talented Americans, of the various American baseball players sent across to coach and play baseball in England, in the 1890 season, the most prominent was arguably Preston North End captain Leech Maskrey, who had played Major League Baseball. In August 1890 the Preston club organised a presentation for their captain, who was returning to the United States.^[31] Meanwhile, Spalding turned his attention to establishing collegiate baseball in the United Kingdom^[32] with very little success.

In March 1890 Edinburgh Northern Baseball Club began to meet for practice^[33] and Spalding's influence was obvious when The Spalding Baseball Club of Aberdeen sprung to life in July 1890, their headquarters being at 59 Princes Street.^[34] By August 1890 the financial backing of Spalding resulted in two local rivals emerging in Aberdeen, the Spalding Baseball Club and Aberdeen Baseball Club, who played at The Links. The two competed for the Spalding 50 guinea Challenge Cup^[35] and the right to take on the University Baseball Club of Edinburgh, evidence of Spalding's desire to establish collegiate baseball in the United Kingdom. Wales, possibly due to the continued popularity of British or Welsh Baseball, was slower to adopt the American game. In April 1893 The Cardiff Central were formed, and claimed to organise “the first game of American baseball played in South Wales.” They were based at Grangetown.^[36]

The Golden Age and Postwar Decline[]

Baseball's peak popularity in Britain was in the years immediately preceding World War II. Professional baseball teams often shared grounds with football clubs and the game was run at a professional standard with up to 10,000 spectators per game. In 1933, in response to a challenge from Major League Baseball's National League President, John Haydler, the wealthy British gambling tycoon, Sir John Moores, established the National Baseball Association and continued to fund the establishment of amateur and professional leagues in England.

With the golden age, British baseball achieved a major milestone in 1938, with the victory of Great Britain over the United States, in the 1938 Amateur World Series, considered the first World Cup of Baseball. The series was created by Sir John Moores, with the 1939 Amateur World Series competition initially being named the John Moore's Cup.

With the backing of Sir John Moores an England baseball team was given financial support to compete in the 1939 series, in Havana, presumably as defending champions Great Britain. In doing so they would have become the first national representative team to compete outside the United Kingdom^[37] but the outbreak of the Second World War interrupted the development of British baseball, the team withdrew and the sport entered into decline. Following the war, in July 1951, Wolsley Athletic (Birmingham) became the first British baseball team to play in continental Europe, in an official game, in Belgium.^[38]

British and Irish players in Major League Baseball[]

Over 90 players born in Britain and Ireland, or who qualified to play for the Great Britain national team, have played in the MLB. This includes players born in Ireland before the partition of Ireland and Ireland ceding from the United Kingdom and players from the Bahamas who qualified through ancestral heritage.

At present[]

As of the 2021 season, there are 90 teams from 48 baseball clubs actively participating in leagues, and 1,500 adult and Junior (under 18) players ranging geographically from London to Liverpool, St Austell to Edinburgh.

There have been numerous league formats since 1890. The British Baseball Federation (BBF) is the governing body for baseball in the UK and the baseball leagues. The season runs from April until August. Affiliated baseball clubs pay annual affiliation fees to be a member of the BBF and play in the BBF Leagues and Junior Leagues. There are three leagues independent of the British Baseball Federation: the Scottish National League, run by Baseball Scotland; the Northern Baseball League containing mainly teams based in Northern England; and the South West and Wales Baseball League, representing some of the teams in the South West of England, plus one team in Wales. There is also a full Great Britain Baseball Programme which comprises the Great Britain Baseball Academy,^[39] junior national teams and Great Britain 'Seniors' Baseball Team. British national teams have competed in the European Baseball Championships^[40] and the World Baseball Classic.^[41]

The BBF league format is divided into the national divisions, consisting of four tiers from the National League, down to the Single-A league. At the end of the season, all divisions compete in post-season tournaments where the top teams from each conference play knockout matches, with the winning teams then progressing to the Championship Series. The Championship Series of the National League is best of three; the AAA, AA and A championships are single games.

The Independent leagues compete against the teams in their own leagues, and in 2017 the first Independent leagues finals weekend was held at Hull, which consisted of semi-finals between the champions of the Independent leagues and a final held the next day. This was followed by an England v Scotland friendly All-Star game.

Baseball in Northern Ireland is affiliated to Baseball Ireland for practical reasons. Northern Ireland's only team, the Belfast Northstars, play in the Irish Adult League.

British University Baseball has also been growing, with 20 universities with clubs at the end of the 2015/16 season: Cambridge, Coventry, Durham, Edinburgh, Essex, Hull, Imperial, Leeds Beckett, , Loughborough, Manchester Metropolitan University (Cheshire), Nottingham University, Nottingham Trent University, Sheffield, Southampton, Stirling, Swansea, UCL and University of East Anglia. The University season runs from September to May, the typical off-season for the sport. Without a British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) league, teams compete in the National University Baseball Championships (NUBC) tournament, which happens twice a year in the spring and the autumn and is run by BaseballSoftballUK (BSUK). The Spring 2016 Champions are Loughborough, and have won the past 3 NUBC tournaments. Despite not having a BUCS league, a Northern University Baseball League was set up for the 2015/16 season, and is planned to expand and be renamed to the National University Baseball League, and have a similar set up to the BBF leagues.

National Baseball Champions[]

Championships by Region[]

League System (2021)[]

Due to the large turnover of teams (from baseball currently not being a professional sport in the United Kingdom), the league structure changes every season. For 2021, the format is the following:

2021 Clubs[]

Note: This list does not contain clubs who failed to opt in to the 2021 league system and are officially listed as inactive. Youth teams are also not included.

Club	Team Name	City/Area	Ballpark	Division	Club Founded
Aberdeen BC	Granite City Oilers	Aberdeen, Aberdeen	George W. Chalmers Field	SNL	2013
	Aberdeen Thistles			Women – Scotland
BC Vetra	BC Vetra	Saltford, Somerset	Wedmore Road	AAA – South West	2020
Belles Baseball	Belles Baseball	Slough, Berkshire	Farnham Park	Women – England	2021
Birmingham Metalheads BC	Birmingham Metalheads	Birmingham, West Midlands	Marston Green Recreational Ground	WMBL	2021
Bournemouth Bears BC	Bournemouth Bears	Ferndown, Dorset	The Beach	AAA – South West	2018
	Bournemouth Bears (A)			SWWBL – Severn
Bracknell B&SC	Bracknell Inferno	Bracknell, Berkshire	Westmorland Park	A – South	1992
Brighton BC	Brighton Jets	Brighton and Hove, East Sussex	Pavilion Field	A – South	2016
	Brighton Brewers
Bristol BC	Bristol Badgers	Keynsham, Somerset	Somerdale Pavilion	AAA – South West	2008
	Bristol Bats			SWWBL – Severn
	Bristol Brunels
	Bristol Buccaneers			SWWBL – Wessex
	Bristol Bobcats			Women – England
Cambridge Baseball	Cambridge Monarchs	Cambridge, Cambridgeshire	Coldhams Recreation Ground	AA – Central	2011
	Cambridge Valkyries			Women – England
Croydon Pirates Baseball	Croydon Pirates	Sutton, London	Roundshaw Grounds	AA – South East	1981
Cardiff Merlins Baseball	Cardiff Merlins	Cardiff, Cardiff	Pontcanna Fields	SWWBL – Severn	2018
Cartmel Valley Lions BC	Cartmel Valley Lions	Cartmel, Cumbria	Cartmel Priority School Field	BBL – AAA	1993
Cornish ClayCutters BC	Cornish ClayCutters	St. Austell, Cornwall	St Mewan School Field	SWWBL – Wessex	2017
County Durham Spartans BC	County Durham Spartans	Staindrop, County Durham	Staindrop Academy	BBL – AA	2017
East London LATIN BOYS BT	East London LATIN BOYS	Waltham Forest, London	Salisbury Hall Playing Field	AAA – South	2011
	East London LATIN BOYS (AA)			AA – South East
Edinburgh BC	Edinburgh Diamond Devils	Edinburgh, Edinburgh	Bobby Thompson Field	SNL	1985
	Edinburgh Cannons
Essex Arrows BC	Essex Arrows	Waltham Abbey, Essex	Townmead Leisure Park	BBF NBL	1983
	Essex Arrows (AAA)			AAA – South
	Essex Archers			AA – Central
Glasgow BC	Glasgow Galaxy	Glasgow, Glasgow	Tolcross Field	SNL	1997
	Glasgow Comets
Guildford B&SC	Guildford Mavericks	Guildford, Surrey	Christ's College	AA – South East	1992
	Guildford Gold Cats			A – South
	Guildford Millers
Herts Baseball	Herts Falcons	Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire	Grovehill Ballpark	BBF NBL	1996
	Herts Hawks			AA – Central
	Herts Eagles			A – Central
	Herts Londoners
	Herts Raptors
Hull Scorpions BC	Hull Scorpions	Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire	Eastmount Recreation Centre	BBL – A	–
Kent Buccaneers BC	Kent Buccaneers	Hadlow, Kent	Williams Field	AAA – South	2018
	Kent Buccaneers Development Team			A – South East
Kent Mariners BC	Kent Mariners	Aylesford, Kent	Cobdown Park	A – South East	-
Legends BC	Lancashire Legends	Sutton, London	Roundshaw Grounds	BBF NBL	2020
	London Legends
Leicester Blue Sox	Leicester Blue Sox	Leicester, Leicestershire	Western Park	WMBL	2006
Liverpool Trojans BC	Liverpool Trojans	Sefton, Merseyside	Bootle Stadium	BBL – AAA	1946
	Liverpool Twojans			BBL – AA
London Mets B&SC	London Mets	Haringey, London	Finsbury Park	BBF NBL	1988
	London Capitals
	London Mammoths			AAA – South
	London Marauders
	London Musketeers			AA – South East
	London Sidewinders
	London Minotaurs			A – Central
	London Mustangs
	London Mayhem			Women – England
Long Eaton Storm	Long Eaton Storm	Long Eaton, Derbyshire	West Park Leisure Centre	WMBL	2014
Manchester BC	Manchester As	Wythenshawe, Greater Manchester	Wythenshawe Park	BBL – AAA	1947
	Manchester Bees			BBL – A
Milton Keynes BC	Milton Keynes Bucks	Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire	Woughton on the Green	AA – Central	1986
Newcastle Nighthawks BC	Newcastle Nighthawks	Newcastle, Tyne and Wear	Gosforth Sports Association	BBL – AA	2017
Norwich Baseball	Norwich Iceni	Norwich, Norfolk	University of East Anglia	AA – Central	2017
Oxford Kings BC	Oxford Kings	Oxford, Oxfordshire	Horspath Sports Ground	AA – Central	1998
Redbacks BC	Essex Redbacks	Chelmsford, Essex	Melbourne Park	AAA – South	–
	Essex Redbacks (A)			A – Central
Richmond B&SC	Richmond Knights	Richmond upon Thames, London	Flood Field	AAA – South	1992
	Richmond Dragons			AA – South East
	Richmond Dukes			A – South
Sheffield Bladerunners BC	Sheffield Bladerunners I	Sheffield, South Yorkshire	Thorncliffe Recreational Ground	BBL – AA	1985
	Sheffield Bladerunners II			BBL – A
	Sheffield Bladerunners III
	Sheffield Bladerunners IV
Sheffield Bruins BC	Sheffield Bruins	Sheffield, South Yorkshire	Thorpe Green Park	BBL – AAA	2018
	Sheffield Cubs			BBL – A
	Sheffield Bruins Women			Women – England
South Coast Pirates BC	South Coast Pirates	Hastings, East Sussex	Bexhill Park	A – South East	2018
	South Coast Seadogs
Stourbridge Titans BC	Stourbridge Titans	Stourbridge, West Midlands	Gibson Field	WMBL	2011
Taunton Muskets BC	Taunton Muskets	Taunton, Somerset	Muskets Field	SWWBL – Wessex	2014
Tayport Breakers BC	Tayport Breakers	Tayport, Fife	Tom Waddell Memorial Baseball Field	SNL	2020
Telford BC	Telford Giants	Telford, Shropshire	Meadow Recreation Ground	WMBL	2020
	Telford 26ers			Women – England
Tonbridge Baseball	Tonbridge Bobcats	Tonbridge, Kent	Deaconsfield	A – South East	–
	Tonbridge Wildcats
SW Rebeldes BC	SW Rebeldes	Saltford, Somerset	Wedmore Road	AAA – South West	2020
Women's Baseball UK	WB-UK Nomads	n/a – travelling team	n/a	Women – Scotland	2021
Weston Jets BC	Weston Jets	Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset	Hutton Moor	SWWBL – Wessex	2018
Wolverhampton BC	Wolverhampton Wolves	Wolverhampton, West Midlands	Colton Hills Community School	WMBL	2019
Worcester BC	Worcester Sorcerers	Worcester, Worcestershire	Merlin Field	WMBL	2019

See also[]

• Baseball awards#United Kingdom
• Baseball awards#Europe
• British Baseball

References[]

External links[]

• BBF (British Baseball Federation)
• Great Britain National Baseball Team
• Project Cobb, the Project for the Chronicling of British Baseball.
• Great Britain Baseball Scorers Association, the home of baseball scoring in the UK.