The home of British Baseball
Ordinarily I’d regale you with tales of activity around the diamonds, but rather than mention that Daws Hill Spitfires and Nottingham Rebels remain the only two unbeaten sides in senior competition, or that the Herts Falcons have jumped ahead of the London Mets in the NBL after South London Pirates caused an upset for their cross-town rivals on Sunday, or that that varsity series between Oxford Kings and Cambridge Royals was split in AAA South – the round-ups of which you can find on the BBF website.
But let’s have a look at a slightly different picture. The new home of British Baseball (and British Softball).
Farnham Park is now open for business; the official launch is on 20 July but local teams and schools programmes have had a run out on the softball diamonds already. With the facility to be open in time for the end-of-season playoffs, both senior and junior NBCs will now have a focus and the sports, after such a long time battling for anything more than a grade-three listed part of public space (think of croquet and bowls as grade-one, then all other sports at grade-two), there’ll be a place we can call home.
Much is still to happen, but most of it seems complete and it’s just a press box, floodlights and a thousand fans away from looking ready to host major tournaments. According to the info being fed to all and sundry at least.
Both sports made the latest shortlist for reinstatement to the 2020 Olympics, whereupon they would have to be accepted together. The World Baseball and Softball Confederation are confident of the acceptance of the sports back to the games, and PlayBall 2020, their campaign to do so, is gaining support. They are, however, up against wrestling, which has been a mainstay of the Modern Olympics and harps back to the ancient Games, and squash – the sport of choice for city bankers looking for a 40-minute lunchtime workout.
Baseball and softball perhaps offer the most market appeal – proven track records in corporate environments, and MLB is probably the best-attended league in the world in terms of sheer numbers. Probably because each team plays 162 games a year which equates to *QUICK MATHS* 2430 matches during the regular season.
Squash is notoriously difficult to follow as a spectator and wrestling has to prove that it’s able to adapt to the times (Greco-Roman at London 2012 was interesting, although no one really seemed to understand it)*
*I am paraphrasing for many things – the IOC have given far fuller responses here.
So that, and the fact that it’s played competitively in hundreds of countries around the world, gives baseball/softball the best chance of the three to be included, but I have a hunch that the old hats might give wrestling another go. Already roller sports, wushu, wakeboarding, climbing and karate have been overlooked.
A good showing and more external communication around the NBCs could be crucial in helping Britain make decisions for future growth of the sports, and the way it will vote; with world champions in squash it makes sense for GBR’s medal hopes for THAT bat-and-ball sport to get the elected support, but for sheer potential I do hope baseball/softball gets a look in. Now that we have a big facility, and Man City-New York Yankees are in talks about bringing an MLB game or series to these fair isles, Blighty might yet have a big baseball future, which is only fitting since we bloody invented it!
