Nine Things to Know about MLB's London Series

Major League Baseball takes its greatest and most iconic rivalry across the pond to London Stadium this weekend as the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees play a pair of games in the first-ever London Series.

The Yankees are currently in first place in the AL East after a crazy surge in the last two months thanks to their depth taking care of business with most of their star players on the injured list.

The defending World Series champion Red Sox have struggled this season and are nine games back of the Yankees in the division and one game out of the Wild Card race.

Here are 9 things you need to know about baseball’s first meaningful road trip to England.

9. This is baseball’s first regular-season trip to Europe

Major League Baseball has played regular season games outside of the continental United States before – Mexico, Puerto Rico, Japan, and Australia. The Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners opened their 2019 campaigns in the Japan Series in Tokyo in late March.

But never has MLB gone to Europe for the regular season, a continent where baseball isn’t at the top of the sports list, especially in England.

8. There are two European players in this weekend’s Eurotrip and neither is English.

Of the combined 50-man roster between the Red Sox and the Yankees, only two players hail from European descent, but none are from England itself. Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts comes from Aruba and Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius hails from Amsterdam.

Both Bogaerts and Gregorius represented the Netherlands in the 2017 World Baseball Classic as the Netherlands just lost to Puerto Rico in extra innings of the semifinals, finishing fourth overall for the second consecutive year.

7. There will be a version of the Presidents Race in the middle of the fourth inning, and it’ll be humorous … at the least

We’re not making this up, but after a social media contest, Winston Churchill, Freddie Mercury, King Henry VIII, and the Loch Ness Monster will all race during the fourth inning as MLB tries to bring American sports culture across the pond.

The middle-inning event will be ran just like the Presidents Race at Nationals Park.

6. There will be 700 local volunteers that will help the English n learn to baseball

Over 700 local volunteers who are working the game at London Stadium will help the ushers and ticket takers explain baseball to everyone in attendance.

The volunteers were taught “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” and will lead their sections during the seventh-inning stretch.

There will also be a live announcer that will explain baseball’s little nuances during a game. The usually R-H-E scoreboard that we see at ballparks nationwide has been fully spelled out, and fans will be reminded that, unlike in soccer, they can keep the balls that go into the stands and are advising them not to throw them back onto the field.

5. Yankee Stadium’s “YMCA” and Fenway’s “Sweet Caroline” will be played at London Stadium

Both of the iconic songs and middle-inning performances will be performed at London Stadium to give those going to a baseball game for the very first time a taste of what it’s like to be at a game in Yankee Stadium or Fenway Park by performing both Y-M-C-A and the song Sweet Caroline exactly as they’re done at their home ballparks.

However, in this interview with the YES Network, Austin Romine wouldn’t mind hearing a soccer chant instead.

4. Prepare for home runs to dead-center

London Stadium, home of West Ham United of the English Premier League, will be a fittingly wide baseball “pitch,” It’s just 385 feet to straight-away center with a 16-foot wall, however, foul territory runs kind of similar to how wide it is in Oakland Coliseum with foul poles as short as it is in Yankee Stadium or Fenway at 330-feet down each foul line.

The 385-feet to dead center is the shortest center field on record for an MLB regular-season game.

The “ballpark-in-a-box” was built in just over three weeks with materials shipped in from America and artificial turf shipped in from France.

There will also be the largest protective netting we’ve seen in a baseball game to date.

3. Okay, so this kind of isn’t baseball’s overall first trip to England

Twenty-six years ago, both the Red Sox and the Mets minor-league squads played a rain-shortened exhibition game sponsored by Major League Baseball at The Oval, one of England’s largest cricket grounds.

The Mets went on to beat the Sox 8-3.

Also, this:

2. Actually, baseball might have possibly been invented in England.

According to a recent discovery by author David Block in a reference in the Whitehall Evening Post, baseball, or “bass-ball” was first recorded to have been played as far back as 1749. The Prince of Wales and the Earl of Middlesex took part in the earliest recording of the game.

The previous earliest known mention of baseball was in William Bray’s diary that referred to a game back in 1755 and the earliest reference of the game being played in the United States goes back to 1778.

Block talked about the game’s differences then compared to now. “The ball was much softer than today’s and instead of a bat, the palm of the batter’s hand was used to strike the ball.”

Maybe it’s not America’s Game after all?

1. Baseball is kind of a niche sport in England

England has its own league, the National Baseball League, but players who play baseball in England all agree that while there’s a bit more interest in the sport across the pond, the sport is far from being anywhere close to popular in the country.

There’s nowhere to buy baseball equipment in the same way we can in America and its hard to keep it so consistent with the lack of financial support the game itself gets amongst all of its ranks.