Baseball in London is Already Wild

The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox will play a two-game series in London this weekend, marking the first Major League Baseball action in Europe. As someone who cares deeply about the sport, it’s cool to see the bigwigs trying to expand the footprint. That said, there’s a few things to discuss before these two old American League East rivals play thousands of miles East of home.

Keep in mind that today we saw the re-emergence of an annual story that crops up suggesting the first recorded game of baseball was played just outside of London. So those people across the pond are trying to steal our shine and take some of our national pride away. Again. Right before the Fourth of July.

They’d have a more convincing argument and legitimate claim to the beginnings of the sport if, at the highest levels, they bothered to learn some of the lingo. Here is some pure Steve Buscemi How Do You Do, Fellow Kid stuff.

Never in 35 years of watching and playing the game have I encountered the phrase “time to batter up.” Not opposed to it, per se, just thrown a bit.

Also, it’s a small thing, but the Red Sox logo is on the left side of the graphic here, even though they’ll serve as the home team in both games. Listing the home side first is fine for Liverpool-Arsenal at Anfield, but over here we do things a bit differently.

Just saying. Don’t want to cause any trouble for the person painting the field. Have always felt bad about the Chefs guy.