Plan B Forum

'American positivity': Baseball popular with British fans

America's national pastime made a positive impression on British fans the first time they got to see the game up close and personal on British soil.

That may have been helped by a warm, picture-perfect day in often overcast London — baseball weather at its best, played on a midsummer's eve with sunlight that seemed to never fade — and by a slugfest that, to say the least, emphasized power over precision pitching. The 59,659-person crowd at London Stadium was treated to an extreme version of contemporary baseball: a long game with a steady stream of pitchers and home runs.[The field was made with newly installed AstroTurf, and the fence was only 385 ft. to dead center field, both of which probably contributed to the high scoring.]

Things American fans take for granted, like standing for the national anthem, or joshing rival fans without getting overly crude, struck many Brits in London Stadium as a refreshing change.

"It's brilliant, it's amazing, it's so American as well," said Jack Lockwood, a 23-year-old who pitches and plays catcher in an amateur baseball league in the city of Sheffield. "I've been to hundreds of football (soccer) games and it's just such a different atmosphere. I just like the American positivity."

Lockwood spent about six hours on a train to get to and from London for the game, but he considered the trip well worth it, even though his favorite team — the Los Angeles Dodgers — wasn't playing.

He said it would be impossible to have fans from two rival English soccer teams sit in the same stands — intermingled as New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox fans were at Saturday's game — without violent scenes.

"You put two rival football teams' fans in the same stands, you'll get a fight," he said. "In baseball, you can put the fans together and you can have a laugh with anyone."

There were some British touches at the game, like the roaming vendors selling Pimm's cocktails and gin and tonics, but the focus was generally on typical American ballpark fare: hot dogs, nachos, burgers and beer. There were even supersized hot dogs, checking in at 2 feet long.

"It's the way the Americans do sports," said pleased British fan Stuart Graham, 45. "The way they have the spectator in mind. You know you're sitting there and the man comes around with your beer and your hot dogs and you can relax and enjoy the game. It's really very different to what we're used to."

He and Ian Muggridge bought the tickets months ago, spurred in part by the storied Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, which promised to bring top talent to the British capital.

"Two big heavyweights of U.S. baseball, sort of like Manchester United playing Liverpool in the UK," he said, referring to British soccer rivals. "Great spectacle to come and see."

We watched this...

"You put two rival football teams' fans in the same stands, you'll get a fight," he said. "In baseball, you can put the fans together and you can have a laugh with anyone."

Big RR wrote:Well, to each his own--I'd give the nod to real football (not soccer, and FWIW I find well played soccer exciting) and ice hockey as being a lot more exciting. Then again, I'm not much of a baseball or basketball fan.

MajGenl.Meade wrote:Yeah like those games weren't fixed to make it seem exciting.....

Lord Jim wrote:
Oh come on, these were people used to watching cricket fercrisakes; how exciting did it need to be?

I can't comment on cricket, but the baseball season comprises 162 games, so the importance of any one game (except near the end when the payoffs are being chased) is not all that great.

Lord Jim wrote:.

And I was so sure you'd have been sitting in the stands with your fielder's mitt, hoping to snag a souvenir ball...