MLB yesterday "transformed" Hyde Park in London into a baseball field, putting on an exhibition featuring several former players taking part in a Home Run Derby as part of the league's "plan to showcase the game to build interest in Britain and Europe," according to Katz & Spiezio of the AP. There was also a batting cage for fans to "try out their swings." There were a "few English touches -- Pimms’s with lemonade for sale at the bar -- but Americana was in vogue." The event "drew several thousand enthusiastic fans and provided a needed boost for British baseball teams." MLB Managing Dir for Europe, the Middle East and Africa Charlie Hill said that it is "possible that some regular-season games will be played in London" as soon as the '19 season (AP, 7/4). MLB Senior VP/Growth, Strategy & Int'l Chris Park said that he was optimistic games in London "could be scheduled -- most likely two." In N.Y., David Waldstein writes the "big question" is how MLB games would be "received in London, or if they could carve out a following for the sport in a country with an entrenched sporting culture." Former MLBer Cliff Floyd, who was one of three former players who made the trip to London, said, "They’re basically trying to be what the NFL is. The NFL can be successful. If everything measures up to what they have accomplished, then it will have succeeded. I don’t know if we’ll get to that point, because it will take some time. But you start gradually" (N.Y. TIMES, 7/5).
BASEBALL ABROAD: THE GUARDIAN's Nick Miller wrote just as the NFL and NBA "regularly bring competitive games" to England, MLB also "wants to gain a foothold in Europe." Miller: "Which leads to the obvious question: how do you introduce baseball, a sport which has little history or cultural relevance in the UK, to a sporting consciousness that already has plenty to occupy itself with?" Hill said, "The biggest problem in many respects is that we’re a sport with 150 years of tradition that has a really deep-rooted place in American culture." Miller noted the challenge is "how to make that fit into the British sporting landscape." A few months ago, initial steps towards "involving and cultivating UK-based fans were made, including a consultation group and working with bloggers and the podcast Batflips And Nerds, the idea being to help create more of a community." Ultimately, MLB's idea is to "build an audience gradually" for not only '19 "but beyond" (GUARDIAN, 7/3).
