Josh Chetwynd’s latest book, ‘Baseball in Europe’, has been receiving some well-deserved publicity of late. Published by McFarland, it tells the tale of how baseball has developed in forty European countries, a phenomenon largely unknown to North Americans and indeed to most Europeans as well.
Mister-Baseball.com is the internet home of European baseball and so it was no surprise that they conducted an interview with Josh about the book. It touches on a variety of subjects, most notably the current state of baseball in Britain. Josh reveals some of the barriers that the sport faces here, stating that “throughout baseball’s British history, many British commentators have lambasted baseball in the context of cricket. I guess the fear has been that the two sports can’t peacefully coexist. Even today, I believe that one of the reasons that baseball has not grown is that so many local governments in the UK thumb their noses at the idea of using public space for baseball diamonds. Although not alone on the continent, I believe this negativity in Britain is among the worst in Europe”.
The Mister-baseball piece includes a link to an article from the Guardian online by Josh’s Baseball on Five colleague Dave Lengel. It’s a wider take on the decision to remove baseball from the Olympics, which includes a short review of Josh’s book.
Most impressively, ‘Baseball in Europe’ was recently the subject of a very complimentary feature on the Entertainment section of MLB.com. It’s great to see Josh’s latest book getting some publicity and hopefully baseball fans in Europe and North America will enjoy learning about the history of the sport in this continent.Â
And maybe a few cynical Brits might even be persuaded that baseball isn’t just played in America?Â
