Baseball in the United Kingdom
is a growing, minor sport in the United Kingdom, with an estimated 3,000 participants in 2011 rising to over 22,000 softball and baseball participants by 2016.
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.
Despite relatively low numbers of participation in the United Kingdom, there have been a number players to have played in the MLB. Amongst over 90 British and Irish players to have played in the MLB 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.
History
Origins
It is argued that modern ‘American baseball’ can trace its roots to 18th century Britain, 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 1870’s exhibition matches between American teams have been staged in Britain, culminating in the MLB London Series in 2019, which sold out 120,000 tickets in less than an hour. 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, 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. 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. 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.
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, 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, and over 8,000 attended a game at Lords. On arriving at Bristol, Spalding paid tribute to the English cricket star W G Grace, "the best known Englishman in the world".
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. 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 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 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.
Ley, who certainly had “introduced baseball amongst his employees” 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.
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. 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. 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.” It was not totally unexpected when the Secretary of Essex County Cricket Club, Mr Betts, resigned his position to take up the role of Secretary of the newly formed Baseball Association of Great Britain, in July 1890.
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. 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. 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, 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. 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. Meanwhile, Spalding turned his attention to establishing collegiate baseball in the United Kingdom with very little success.
In March 1890 Edinburgh Northern Baseball Club began to meet for practice 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. 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 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.
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 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 became the first British baseball team to play in continental Europe, in an official game, in Belgium.
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
Today, there are 74 active baseball teams, and 1,500 adult and Junior players ranging geographically from London to Liverpool, St Austell to Edinburgh. The Junior Great Britain national team consists of 15 players and recently competed in the European championships.There have been numerous league formats since 1890. The British Baseball Federation 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 Baseball League, representing all but one of the teams in the South West of England. There is also a full Great Britain Baseball Programme which comprises the Great Britain Baseball Academy, junior national teams and Great Britain 'Seniors' Baseball Team. British national teams have competed in the European Baseball Championships and the World Baseball Classic.
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, Leeds Gryphons Baseball Club, Loughborough, Manchester Metropolitan University, 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 league, teams compete in the National University Baseball Championships tournament, which happens twice a year in the spring and the autumn and is run by BaseballSoftballUK. 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
| Region | Number of championships | Towns/Cities |
| London | London | |
| North West | Liverpool, Warrington, Preston, Rochdale, Stretford | |
| Yorkshire and the Humber | Hull, Harrogate, Halifax, Leeds | |
| South East | Cobham, Brighton, Bracknell, Southampton, Windsor | |
| East of England | Harlow, Purfleet, Bedford, Waltham Abbey, Watford | |
| East Midlands | Derby, Nottingham | |
| North East | Middlesbrough, Newcastle | |
| West Midlands | Birmingham | |
| Scotland | ||
| South West | ||
| Wales |
2019 Teams
BIR Affiliate of Birmingham BanditsBRG Affiliate of Brighton Brewers
BRS Affiliate of Bristol Badgers
CAM Affiliate of Cambridge Monarchs
ESA Affiliate of Essex Arrows
ESR Affiliate of Essex Redbacks
GUI Affiliate of Guildford Mavericks
HER Affiliate of Herts Falcons
HUL Affiliate of Hull Scorpions
KEN Affiliate of Kent Buccaneers
LIV Affiliate of Liverpool Trojans
LON Affiliate of London Mets
MAN Affiliate of Manchester A's
RIC Affiliate of Richmond Knights
SHF Affiliate of Sheffield Bladerunners
TON Affiliate of Tonbridge Bobcats