Baseball is a growing minor sport in the United Kingdom, with an estimated 22,500 people playing in 2020.
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. At various times in history, there have been professional teams, most notably the 1890 National League of Baseball of Great Britain.
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. , 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 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). Over 90 British-born players have played in MLB, Danny Cox, Lance Painter and Bobby Thomson being the most notable. Thomson hit the Shot Heard 'Round the World that took the New York Giants to the World Series in 1951.
Major League Baseball players born in the United Kingdom Over 90 players born in the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom and pre partition Ireland have played professionally in Major League Baseball. That does not include players born outside the United Kingdom but of British heritage, or players who have played in MLB and represented the Great Britain national baseball team, but who were born outside the United Kingdom.
Inductees to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Henry Chadwick, born in Exeter, was a sportswriter, baseball statistician and historian, often referred to as the "Father of Baseball", for his early reporting on and contribution to the development of the game. He edited the first baseball guide to be sold to the public. He is credited with creating box scores, as well as the scoring abbreviation "K" that designates a strikeout. He is also said to have created the statistics of batting average and earned run average (ERA).
Tom Connolly, born in Manchester, was an umpire in Major League Baseball. He officiated in the National League from 1898 to 1900, followed by 31 years of service in the American League from 1901 to 1931. In over half a century as an American League umpire and supervisor, he established the high standards for which the circuit's arbiters became known, and solidified the reputation for integrity of umpires in the major leagues.
Harry Wright, born in Sheffield, was described by fellow Hall of Fame inductee Henry Chadwick as "the father of professional base ball". Although not born in the United Kingdom, George Wright is another inductee of United Kingdom heritage. George is the brother of Harry, and his parents were born in England.
Major League Baseball players who have represented the United Kingdom Either through being born in the United Kingdom, via ancestral links to the United Kingdom, or qualifying via being born in a Commonwealth member nation, a number of players with MLB experience have represented the United Kingdom internationally, via the Great Britain national baseball team. The most notable recent player is Jazz Chisholm Jr.
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".
Although early codes of baseball may have originated in the United Kingdom, the American code of baseball, as North Americans would understand it, started to be played in the UK as early as the 1870s and it was fully developed by 1890, when the professional 1890 National League of Baseball of Great Britain was established. Since the 1870s, many exhibition matches between North American teams have been staged in the United Kingdom, culminating in the MLB London Series in 2019, which sold out 120,000 tickets in less than an hour. As a result, a small number of MLB teams have 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 Lord's cricket ground. On arriving at Bristol, Spalding paid tribute to the English cricket star W. G. Grace, "the best known Englishman in the world".
That 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 the 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 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, when discussing Derby in 1890, Ley erroneously claimed "we were really the first club formed in Great Britain".
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, 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.
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, but pressure from other teams in the league over the number of American players on the Derby team, as well as low attendances, led to Derby being expelled before the end of the season although, despite evidence to the contrary, the club insisted they had "retired" as champions.
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 in which he was a major shareholder. Ironically, given the finger pointing at Ley for employing too many 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 sprang 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, 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 By 1911, the game's growing popularity was of enough concern to tradition-minded elites that the London County Council banned it, deeming it "dangerous to spectators"; this did not stop the formation of women's baseball teams.
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. 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.