National Baseball League Kicks Off Domestic Season at Farnham Park
The 2024 National Baseball League Domestic Season Kicks Off at Farnham Park - All the Latest!
The National Baseball League gets underway in April 2024 - kicking off an important year for British baseball.
The Sporting Blog takes a look at the latest from the British Baseball Federation.
Action from the 2023 London Mets and Essex Arrows clash at Farnham Park. Credits: Jody Demay-Davies
The British Baseball Federation’s (BBF) National Baseball League gets underway on Sunday 7th April to start an important year for British baseball, with GB U23s competing in September's WBSC World Cup in China and GB U18s, U15s and U12s all competing in Europe.
Defending NBL champions, the London Mets, take on the Sheffield Bruins at the national baseball complex at Farnham Park near Slough.
The 2023 runners-up, the London Capitals, will face the newly promoted Bournemouth Bears, also at Farnham Park. Both games start at 12.00 noon.
Jose Lopez of the Bears said:
"I'm absolutely pumped for the upcoming baseball season with one of our teams in the NBL.
The anticipation is sky-high, and I can't wait to see our players hit it out of the park and make our fans proud. Let's swing for the fences and make this season legendary.”
The Essex Arrows take on newcomer BC Vetra at Waltham Abbey in Essex and aim to get back into European competition.
Brad Neal, general manager of Essex Baseball Club said:
“We are very excited heading into the BBF 2024 season. This is our 2nd season as a united Essex Baseball Club and are confident that we have competitive teams from A through NBL.
Eduardo Rodrigues continues to lead our NBL Arrows with the aim of getting Essex back into Europe.”
In 2023, the London Mets finished top in the NBL standings with a 20-3 win-loss record, only losing to the Essex Arrows, who finished second in the league, and the London Capitals.
After winning their respective semi-finals against the Bruins and the Arrows, the Mets and Capitals provided a thrilling end to the season.
The three-match final went to the wire. The Capitals launched a customary late-inning surge to take the first game 5-3, but the Mets regained their composure to win the two Sunday games 14-0 and 5-0.
Joe O’Connell, adult commissioner for the Mets said:
“For us, it’s a new season, same goals. This team and this club doesn't rest on its laurels.
The Mets have now won seven national League trophies in a row, taking our total to nine overall. No doubt the team will be looking for more success by winning the 10th NBL trophy in the club’s history.”
The following weekend will see the remaining 82 BBF-affiliated adult baseball teams from the AAA, AA and A divisions start their season, with games taking place at baseball diamonds across the country.
The BBF Women’s Baseball League (WBL) is scheduled to get underway in May.
All these teams will compete in the 841 regular season games, trying to make the end-of-season divisional playoffs in September.
Read all the latest on our baseball blog
