The MLB UK Battlegrounds event at Hyde Park is now one week away. All the details can be found on the MLB UK Twitter and Facebook accounts.
It's cricket vs baseball on July 4th as @AlexHales1 and @josbuttler step up to the plate at #MLBBATTLEGROUNDS: https://t.co/FYysuf6zYd pic.twitter.com/MTfXpDSAJQ
— MLB London (@mlblondonseries) June 20, 2017
When this was announced at the start of June, I took a look at some of the other events MLB has played a part in staging on these shores in the past.
One of those was twenty-four years ago when the Boston Red Sox and New York Mets sent some minor leaguers across the pond to play an exhibition game at the Oval.
I’d never seen any photos from that game before MLB’s Murray Cook took to Twitter recently to share a wonderful photo of the event:
24 years ago – Mets vs Redsox in #London at the #Oval. it was fun setting up this baseball on this #cricket pitch https://t.co/B2S8COHNIz pic.twitter.com/EIzkmucB2H
— Murray Cook (@cookmurray) June 25, 2017
Building a temporary baseball field on a cricket or football/rugby site always brings challenges and some slightly unusual field dimensions, but it can be done.
Here’s hoping MLB will be furthering their attempts to put a diamond in the London Stadium in the next few years.