The British Baseball Pavilion, a monthly community gathering: Be a part of it from the start of it

For many sports played in Britain, such as football and cricket, the community spirit that can be fostered within a club bar is a crucial factor in the success of grass-roots activities. And in the baseball played on the continent, taking The Netherlands as one example, community clubs thrive through the social hub of a bar or clubhouse.

But in British baseball, it is often a battle just for clubs to secure a piece of land to erect a backstop on, and thus few outfits have a clubhouse or pavilion. There’s no doubt that this puts baseball at a disadvantage relative to competing sports on the British landscape.

As with many areas of British baseball, though, things do not need to be doom and gloom. We just need to be more creative. And so Joe Gray (Official Scorer, Southern Nationals) and Michael Jones (PR & Marketing Officer, Essex Redbacks) are proposing the start of a monthly gathering on a weekday evening for members of any clubs or other organizations associated with British baseball, and any new or established baseball fans. It will be called the “British Baseball Pavilion” and during the warmer months we hope that the gathering can begin with a friendly game of catch in a nearby park.

The primary purpose of the British Baseball Pavilion will be to add the opportunity for a regular social occasion to the British baseball calendar. However, it is hoped that the discussions that will take place as people unwind after a day at work would also lead to the sharing of local successes and the beginning of more cross-club and cross-organization collaborations. It is a bigger-picture view that we must take if baseball is to regain its rightful place on the British sporting map: the real competition is between baseball and other sports, not among individual clubs.

The first British Baseball Pavilion is scheduled for Wednesday 8 February, beginning at 5:30pm, at the Cittie of Yorke pub in Central London (less than half a mile down the road from British baseball’s first ever league offices, back in the 19th Century). To register your interest please get in touch with Joe via his contact page on the Project COBB website.

Among the various topics under discussion at the inaugural gathering will be the optimum format for the Pavilion, and the best choice of location and venue for future dates. So to have your say, we hope you can join us.

If, as is hoped, the idea does bear fruit, we’d encourage community members in other corners of Britain to set similar ventures going; hence, this will be the “British Baseball Pavilion (London and South East)” to leave the door open for duplication.