Baseball in the United Kingdom
At various times in history, there have been professional teams, most notably the 1890 National League of Baseball of Great Britain.
[3] Despite relatively low numbers of participants today, historically there have been a number of players born in the United Kingdom who have played in U.S Major League Baseball (MLB),[4] Of over 90 players who have played in MLB[5] Danny Cox, Lance Painter and Bobby Thomson being the most notable.
Over 90 players born in the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom and pre partition Ireland have played professionally in Major League Baseball.
Harry Wright, born in Sheffield, was described by fellow Hall of Fame inductee Henry Chadwick as "the father of professional base ball".
Also with parents who emigrated from pre-partition Ireland, Roger Bresnahan was nicknamed "the Duke of Tralee" and was a player and manager in US Major League Baseball.
Charles Radbourn, nicknamed "Old Hoss", was a pitcher who played 12 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB).
It is argued that modern American baseball can trace its roots to 18th century Britain,[11][12][13] with the earliest known mention and illustration of the game appearing in John Newbery's A Little Pretty Pocket-Book in 1744.
Since the 1870s, many exhibition matches between North American teams have been staged in the United Kingdom,[14] culminating in the MLB London Series in 2019, which sold out 120,000 tickets in less than an hour.
[19] 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.
[20] 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,[21] building on the earlier tours in the past decades.
[23] On arriving at Bristol, Spalding paid tribute to the English cricket star W. G. Grace,[24] "the best known Englishman in the world".
[28] 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.
Wales, possibly due to the continued popularity of British or Welsh Baseball, was slower to adopt the American game.
In April 1893, Cardiff Central were formed, and claimed to organise "the first game of American baseball played in South Wales."
[41] Baseball's peak popularity in Britain was in the years immediately preceding World War II.
A resurgence of professional baseball occurred in parts of the United Kingdom during the 1930s, but the outbreak of war led to a decline.
In that era, professional baseball teams often shared grounds with football and rugby league clubs, and drew crowds of up to 10,000 spectators per game.
With the backing of Sir John Moores, a Great Britain team was given financial support to compete in the 1939 series, in Havana, as defending champions.
In doing so, they would have become the first national representative team to compete outside the United Kingdom,[43] but the outbreak of the World War II interrupted the development of British baseball.
Following the War, in July 1951, Wolsley Athletic (Birmingham) became the first baseball team from the United Kingdom to play in continental Europe, in an official game in Belgium.
[46] Initially, it was supposed to take place in 2021,[47] but the season was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic, delaying the launch of the new National Championship until the 2021-22 season In 2023, the University of Central Lancashire made UK baseball history by offering two students, Aflie Hill and Nathan Simmons, scholarships to play baseball.
