United we stand – British Baseball making major progress

A relatively incident-free AGM, matched to a full and operational BBF Board, and positive growth and plans for developments being discussed openly across the community; things have rarely looked brighter for British Baseball.

Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves – there’s still plenty of work to be done – but that the members and volunteers are ready to get stuck in and sort things out, well that can only be a good thing.

First of all, the facts:

Redbacks Baseball & Softball (formerly the Essex Redbacks) has been successful in the club’s proposal for a National Baseball League team. That brings the total NBL sides to nine for 2013, three of which are based in Essex.

Herts Baseball Club will enter a fifth senior team into BBF competition this year, filling the two-year absence of the Club in AAA South. They’ve invited members of the community to help them in naming their new team, the shortlist of which is now a choice between the Herts Red Kites, Herts Harriers and Herts Ravens.

London Mets launch Under-19s team. Having been successful in their application to Sport England to fund the development of an Under-19s team, helping bridge the transition between junior and senior baseball, the Mets’ U19s are looking to also join the new Herts team in AAA South. They’ll take on the club’s current AAA Metros team as well, meaning they’ll also have five teams throughout the BBF senior divisions.

Things are looking healthy in this corner of the country at least.

The discussions, rants and votes from the BBF AGM can be found on the BBF’s own website, but the short version is that most of the proposals that were likely to be voted in were voted in, and the same (or opposite) was true for the less popular motions.

And with tryouts, training, trials and teaching already well under way, and only three weeks now until the first Herts Spring League or Leicester Spring League action (which will see a match-up between the two most successful teams in the country right now, the AAA Liverpool Trojans and NBL Harlow Nationals on Easter Sunday), the season has come around quickly. Clubs are on the hunt for players new and old, hoping to capture some of the boom-boom of Twenty20 cricket with their offer of fast, competitive and exciting baseball.

Indeed, to accommodate some other sections of communities, many clubs have now set up softball programmes, offering different routes into the sports in order to capture the hearts and minds of youngsters and adults alike across the social spectrum.

By the end of the month we’ll know better the schedule and final leagues that clubs have entered into, but in a nice twist we already know that all the leagues are likely to have a dedicated reporter for the BBF website. Though that might not yet mean impartial and neutral coverage for the sport, it does enhance the chances for clubs around the country to embrace the opportunities to promote and market themselves to the wider world.

Look out in the next week or so for an assessment of last year’s season in glorious retro-colour as I dig out my rose-tinted spectacles and search for that lasting memory of when it was dry for a whole day, and people were actually able to play despite the sodden summer!