Baseball was not invented by some American in upstate New York. Rather, it evolved from a number of different bat-and-ball games like cricket, rounders, bat and trap, and stool ball. These games, first played in England, meshed together over time in important ways to form what we now know of as baseball. It’s a fascinating history, featured in a great documentary which searches for baseball’s primordial common ancestor.
Which is to say that, while this seems odd given baseball’s almost total lack of popularity in the U.K., it’s not entirely inappropriate. It’s really just an overdue homecoming:The operators of the Olympic Stadium were on Saturday night in advanced negotiations to stage the first ever Major League Baseball game in Europe.
Telegraph Sport has learnt that serious talks have taken place over bringing a series of MLB matches to the London 2012 centrepiece, potentially as early as 2017.
“Matches.” OMG the British are so cute.
All we Yanks ask is that our British cousins play evening games so we can watch them at a decent hour. Thanks.
(h/t CBS Eye on Baseball)