Great Britain national baseball team

The Great Britain national baseball team is the national men's baseball team of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is governed by the British Baseball Federation, and is also a member nation of the Confederation of European Baseball.

Great Britain national baseball team
Information
Country United Kingdom
FederationBritish Baseball Federation
ConfederationConfederation of European Baseball
World Cup
Appearances2 (First in 1938)
Best result1st (1938)
European Championship
Appearances10 (First in 1967)
Best result2nd (1967 & 2007)

History

The British team is credited with winning the inaugural Baseball World Cup (BWC) in 1938, beating the United States by four games to one in an international series (the Amateur World Series) hosted in England. This series was subsequently declared the first world championship of amateur baseball by the International Baseball Federation (IBAF), and so Great Britain became the first World Amateur Champions. With the backing of Sir John Moores an England baseball team was to compete in the 1939 series, in Havana, presumably as Great Britain and as defending champions. In doing so they would have become the first national representative team to compete outside the United Kingdom[1] but the outbreak of the Second World War interrupted the development of British baseball, the team withdrew and the sport entered into decline. So severe was the impact of the Second World War on British baseball that it was over 70 years before the team qualified for another world championship event, when they reached the 2009 Baseball World Cup by virtue of its second-place finish at the 2007 European Baseball Championship.

In 2007, the Great Britain team won the silver medal at the European Baseball Championship (EC), finishing top of Group B and only losing two games in the tournament. It ultimately finished second overall to the Netherlands. This marked Britain's highest placing in the tournament since its first entry into the event in 1967, when it also finished second.

Prior to 2007 the team's showing in the EC was generally limited to finishing in the lower half of the standings, which sometimes meant relegation to the secondary tournament known as the European Baseball Championship Qualifier (sometimes referred to as the 'B-Pool'). In 1988 and 1996 Great Britain hosted and won the Qualifier, thereby returning to the main European Championship event the following year (sometimes referred to as the 'A-Pool'). Since the silver medal in 2007, Great Britain has on occasion had to repeat the process of qualification through the B-Pool.

By winning the silver medal in 2007 Great Britain qualified both for the 2009 Baseball World Cup and for the Final Qualifying Tournament in Taiwan for the 2008 Summer Olympics. However, a lack of funding including a refusal by UK Sport to provide any backing meant it was forced to withdraw from the Final Qualifying Tournament and was replaced by Germany.[2] This was the Great Britain team's last chance to qualify for an Olympic baseball competition due to the earlier decision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to remove baseball from the Games after 2008. That decision – announced one day after London had been awarded the 2012 Olympics on 6 July 2005 – also meant that the Great Britain baseball team would not have the opportunity to play in front of a home crowd in the 2012 Olympics and promote the sport in the UK. It also meant that the team ceased to receive elite funding from bodies such as UK Sport.

At the 2009 World Cup – held simultaneously in various countries around Europe – Britain qualified out of the first group stage before eventually finishing 15th overall. Following the World Cup, in October 2009 the IBAF announced a new set of world rankings in which Britain rose to 21st.[3], though they since dropped to 32nd as of 2017.[4]

Great Britain was invited to compete in the qualifying round of the 2013 World Baseball Classic. In 2016 Hall of Fame inductee Trevor Hoffman joined the coaching staff, honouring his maternal English ancestry, with his grandfather having been a professional footballer in the Football League.[5] Great Britain competed in the qualifying round of the 2017 World Baseball Classic, where it was defeated in the finals by Team Israel.

Tournament record

World Baseball Classic
World Baseball Classic record Qualification record
Year Host(s) Round Position W L RS RA Host W L RS RA
2006 Did not enter No qualifiers held
2009 Did not enter No qualifiers held
2013 Did not qualify Germany 1 2 14 32
2017 United States 2 2 21 17
Total 0/4 – – – – 3 4 35 49

Great Britain was invited to compete in the qualifying round of the 2013 World Baseball Classic. While the experience was not without its highs, they had the misfortune to be grouped with the powerhouse teams of Canada and Germany. After being routed 11–1 by the Canadians,[6] they picked up their game to issue a similar pounding to the Czech Republic, 12–5.[7]

In the third group game, however, Great Britain were pummelled by a German team scoring for fun. 16–0 down at the 7th inning stretch, they pulled one back before the mercy rule came into effect, and GB exited the qualifiers 16–1.[8] The gulf in class between European and North American baseball was ultimately shown clear with the final game of the group, as Canada handed out another 11–1 mauling to Germany[9] to advance to WBC2013.

Roster
Great Britain roster - 2017 World Baseball Classic Qualification
PlayersCoaches
Pitchers
  •  9 Nolan Bond
  • 15 Cody Chartrand
  • 33 Daniel Cooper
  • 11 Jordan Edmonds
  • 13 Vaughn Harris
  • 32 Greg Hendrix
  • 28 Paul Kirkpatrick
  •  1 Ali Knowles
  • 21 Spencer Kreisberg
  •  5 Rei Martinez
  • 29 Chris Reed
  • 29 Michael Roth
  • 45 Blake Taylor
  •  8 Nateshon Thomas
 Catchers
  • 10 Chris Berset
  • 35 Mitch Evans
  • 20 Brett Rosen

Infielders

  • 14 Maikel Azcuy
  • 22 Albert Cartwright
  •  3 Jasrado Chisholm
  •  7 Richard Klijn
  • 16 Jordan Serena
  • 17 Kyle Simmons

Outfielders

  •  6 Todd Isaacs
  • 19 Reshard Munroe
  • 23 Antoan Richardson
  •  2 Champ Stuart
  • 12 Chavez Young
 Manager
  • Liam Carroll

Coaches

Very few members of the team were born in Britain, instead qualifying through British parents or grandparents, and almost none of them played in the domestic league.[10]

Baseball World Cup
Baseball World Cup record
Year Host Round Position W L RS RA
1938 United Kingdom 1 of 2 4 1 20 14
2009 Croatia/Netherlands 2 15 of 22 1 9 23 70
Total 2/39 1 5 10 43 84
1938 Amateur World Series
13 August Great Britain 3–0  United States United Kingdom Wavertree Stadium, Liverpool
15 August Great Britain 8–6  United States United Kingdom Kingston upon Hull
17 August Great Britain 0–5  United States United Kingdom Spotland Stadium, Rochdale
19 August Great Britain 4–0  United States United Kingdom The Shay, Halifax
20 August Great Britain 5–3  United States United Kingdom Leeds
2009 Baseball World Cup
10 September 2009
Round 1, Group C		 Great Britain 7–9  Japan Croatia Zagreb, Croatia
Attendance: 180
LP: Samuel Whitehead Boxscore WP: Yosuke Okamoto
11 September 2009
Round 1, Group C		 Nicaragua  10 – 0 (F/7) Great Britain Croatia Zagreb, Croatia
Attendance: 150
WP: S. Diego Garcia Boxscore LP: Alexander D. Smith
12 September 2009
Round 1, Group C		 Croatia  1–4 Great Britain Croatia Zagreb, Croatia
Attendance: 600
LP: James Summers Boxscore WP: Brian C. Essery
Sv: Thomas A. Boleska
13 September 2009
Round 2, Group F		 Great Britain 0–6  Cuba Netherlands Pim Mulier Stadion, Haarlem
Attendance: 327
LP: Stephen P. Spragg Boxscore WP: Freddy A. Alvarez
14 September 2009
Round 2, Group F		 Great Britain 5 – 15 (F/8)  South Korea Netherlands Sportpark Ookmeer, Amsterdam
Attendance: 91
LP: Stephen P. Spragg Boxscore WP: Hyun-June Park
16 September 2009
Round 2, Group F		 Nicaragua  4–1 Great Britain Netherlands Familie Stadion, Rotterdam
Attendance: 112
WP: S. Diego Garcia Boxscore LP: Brian C. Essery
17 September 2009
13:00
Round 2, Group F		 Great Britain 4–5  Puerto Rico Netherlands Pim Mulier Stadion, Haarlem
Attendance: 1,477
LP: Alexander D. Smith Boxscore WP: Angel Garcia
Sv: Orlando B. Roman
18 September 2009
Round 2, Group F		 Netherlands  6–0 Great Britain Netherlands Familie Stadion, Rotterdam
Attendance: 2,225
WP: Tom Stuifbergen Boxscore LP: Aeden McQueary-Ennis
19 September 2009
Round 2, Group F		 Spain  3–10 Great Britain Netherlands Familie Stadion, Rotterdam
Attendance: 433
WP: Rhiner A. Cruz Boxscore LP: Stephen P. Spragg
20 September 2009
Round 2, Group F		 Great Britain 6–1  Venezuela Netherlands Pim Mulier Stadion, Haarlem
Attendance: 800
LP: Thomas Stack-Babich Boxscore WP: Roger Luque

European Baseball Championship

Team Great Britain played in the 2019 European Baseball Championship, coming in 9th out of 12 teams. Among the players competing for the team were pitchers Barry Enright and Michael Roth.[11]

  • 1967 : 2nd
  • 1969 : did not qualify
  • 1971 : 7th
  • 1973 : did not qualify
  • 1975 : did not qualify
  • 1977 : did not qualify
  • 1979 : did not qualify
  • 1981 : did not qualify
  • 1983 : did not qualify
  • 1985 : did not qualify
  • 1987 : did not qualify
  • 1989 : 7th
  
  • 1991 : 8th
  • 1993 : did not qualify
  • 1995 : did not qualify
  • 1997 : 9th
  • 1999 : 9th
  • 2001 : 10th
  • 2003 : 9th
  • 2005 : 7th
  • 2007 : 2nd
  • 2010 : 8th
  • 2012 : 11th
  • 2019 : 9th of 12 teams
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See also
  1. "England Baseball Team to Tour". Leeds Mercury. 30 July 1938. p. 11.
  2. BaseballSoftballUK. "GB Baseball Team gets mention in Parliament", baseballsoftballuk.com, 6 February 2008
  3. Great Britain Baseball."Great Britain moves up the baseball world rankings", greatbritainbaseball.com, 20 October 2009
  4. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 23 November 2018. Retrieved 27 November 2017.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  5. Bloom, Barry (22 September 2016). "Hoffman honors British ties as coach". Retrieved 31 July 2020.
  6. World Baseball Classic 2013 Qualifiers: Canada 11 – 1 Great Britain
  7. World Baseball Classic 2013 Qualifiers: Great Britain 12 – 5 Czech Republic
  8. World Baseball Classic 2013 Qualifiers: Germany 16 – 1 Great Britain (7inn)
  9. World Baseball Classic 2013 Qualifiers: Canada 11 – 1 Germany
  10. https://www.muhlenberg.edu/main/athletics/spring11/0630.html
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