Ninh explains, why baseball sucks in the United Kingdom
America’s pastime.
It’s a sport that is now played worldwide by countries you wouldn’t think would ever
play it.
It’s an excellent sport and it’s accessible to all kinds of people.
Contrary to popular belief, Britain has been playing American baseball for quite some time.
It’s not to be confused with British Baseball, which is a completely different sport and
is still being played now.
And one of the more famous historical baseball teams in the 19th century was Derby County.
Now, if you’re from the UK, you’ll know Derby County as a football team.
But back in the day, they were the national baseball champions in 1899.
Eventually, the football team usurped the field and they ended up playing their home
games at the Baseball Ground, where it remained the home of the football for over 100 years
until 1997.
But Baseball has largely been a forgotten, barely played sport, and there’s a few salient
reasons why.
Before I explain … hit that subscribe button and the notifications icon so that you’re
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Baseball, what’s that?
Most people in the UK have heard of baseball.
It’s that sport that all those Americans play, right?
But ask them about the rules of baseball, and barely anyone will be able to tell you.
Not many people know how to play it – mainly because they didn’t watch my video, but
also because there’s little to no coverage of it in the local or national media.
There is no interest in the sport other than a very small niche of people watching Channel
5, and Baseball is pretty much an invisible sport over here.
People don’t hate baseball in the UK … people nothing baseball in the UK.
That’s how little they care.
This is apathy, at its finest.
Where’s the nearest baseball field?
Unlike football, rugby and cricket where you can find facilities in most towns and cities,
baseball fields are incredibly rare.
According to Google, there are only 76 clubs in the nation.
But most of those play on public park spaces, or share facilities with cricket grounds.
How many actual purpose built baseball facilities are there?
Well, according to the BBF: 1.
You heard correctly, just 1.
There is one proper baseball field in the entire country.
This means that any American High School has better facilities than the UK’s best baseball
ground.
I’m seriously not joking.
Who else is playing it?
Almost nobody!
With a lack of interest, and a lack of facilities, baseball is the least participated of the
four North American sports in the country.
If you are lucky enough to live near one of the 76 clubs, you’ll come across a group
of dedicated players and fans.
But you won’t come across many.
Only 3,000 people out of a country of 66.6 million people play baseball, which is significantly
less than the amount of players playing flat green bowls, darts, snooker or any other sport
that doesn’t require any degree of fitness, but plenty of alcohol consumption.
Is there an infrastructure?
Believe it or not, yes.
The British Baseball Federation is the governing body of the sport here in the UK.
You start at a single A team, then move to AA, then AAA and the highest league in the
country is the National Baseball League (which only consists of four teams).
It’s pretty much identical to the American Baseball system.
Simple right?
As you could probably tell, this is where it gets complicated.
Separate leagues exist outside of the BBF, which includes the Northern Baseball League
(which is only in the north of England), The Scottish National League (consisting of teams
only in Scotland), the South West Baseball League, and the West Midlands Baseball League
… that only has three teams in it.
So why is the league structure so convoluted?
Because, petty arguing!
If you’re not happy with the current regime, just make your own!
The British Baseball League was created to rival the British Baseball Federation and
it consists of these separate leagues.
And rather confusingly, they also have their own A system similar to the BBF and American
Baseball.
So depending on the club that you’re at, depends on the which rival organization you
play in.
Is there any chance of unification?
Whilst they’re bickering about how the sport should be run, very unlikely.
Do you even have a national team?
We do.
But remember, these aren’t professional teams and these definitely aren’t professional
players so the standard of play is primitive compared to what you might find in other baseball
playing countries.
They’ve never qualified for any major tournament in the last 50 years or so.
No Olympic games, no World Baseball Classics, no nothing.
I should just end the video there and say ‘I rest my case’, but you know this gets
worse.
Governing bodies don’t really get any funding from government.
And most of the money comes from the few sponsors they do have, and player registration fees.
That’s about it – that’s the only reason why the BBF and the BBL still exist.
And because of the lack of money, there’s no marketing or initiatives to get more people
to play.
They’re very much exist because someone needs to manage the few players that they
do have, not because they do anything proactive to get new ones.
And the few players that play … well they’re not exactly being coached very well, you know,
due to no money to hire proper coaches or even buy decent equipment and stuff like that.
Is that it?
I’ve actually saved the worst reason for last, and it’s simply this … negative
public perception.
The UK isn’t short of native sports and there’s a dirty stigma and negative stereotypes
about American sports amongst the British people.
Rugby snobs will mock American Football for wearing pads to play what they deem to be
an inferior game, and football fans will overuse the rather unfunny handegg joke.
John Cleese should be shot for introducing that term to the world.
Netball snobs will turn their noses up at basketball, even though basketball is clearly
more popular worldwide.
And Cricket fans will deem baseball as ‘slow and boring’, which is ironic given that
they watch and play a significantly longer, slower and infinitely more boring game that
could last up to 5 days.
There seems to be a general ignorance and unmitigated snobbery in the UK when it comes
to American sports, particularly American Football and Baseball.
They just think it’s too American to ever be integrated into British society.
And with a poor attitude like that – sadly, they’re probably right.
So what’s being done about it?
Nothing.
Literally nothing.
With little demand for the sport and little money to be gained from introducing baseball
into schools, towns and cities – there is no impetus to create a baseball culture in
the UK.
Britain is home to a niche following of MLB fans, and MLB have tried to force popularity
onto the UK by playing a series of games in London.
Last year, it was littered with problems – such as extortionate ticket prices, the poor playing
conditions, the incredibly short field and the fact that games were played with the defensive
players facing the sunset and being blinded by the sunlight They could have constructed
the field in the opposite way and it would have been fine.
No wonder they scored so many runs in those games.
Were the two sellout games just a novelty?
Or is there a hidden fandom within the UK that nobody knows about?
I was actually going to find out by doing MLB in London video similar to my NFL in London
video – but my tickets were cancelled due to Coronavirus.
Thanks a lot dick.
So I guess we won’t know for now.
But suffice to say that out of the 4 North American sports, baseball is by far the least
popular.
And it’s foolish to ever try and create a baseball culture here given its many problems.
The mountains are just too high to overcome.
If you can’t win, don’t try.
And that’s exact line the BBF are taking …
If you have found this video entertaining or educational, comment below and let me know
what you think.
Ninh Ly – www.ninh.co.uk - @NinhLyUK