World Baseball Classic Diary - Weds 8th March - GB v Milwaukee Brewers

This was the first chance to see the GB Baseball team in action and the first visit to an MLB spring training facility.

First of all we want to thank the Brewers for their hospitality and their genuine interest in British baseball. All the GB fans there were made to feel extremely welcome.

The GB team were in the middle of BP on one of the four training fields on site when we arrived. It was impressive to watch them work.

Once they had completed their hitting, they were happy to share some time with the many British fans who had made the trip.

As well as being great players, it was clear they were totally committed to doing the best they could in the GB jersey and were clearly delighted to see the British fans.

Both the Brewers and Dodgers have been fantastic in their daily support of the GB team, so thank you.

What was really striking was the quality of the facilities. There were four full size training fields, all beautifully manicured, bullpens galore and of course the necessary batting cages.

Replicating something like that in Great Britain would obviously require a massive investment in time, money and possibly land.

However if we are to improve our facilities, either at Farnham Park or at regional hubs across the country or a combination of both, we need to seriously look at how we can develop baseball facilities across the country.

That includes working with clubs, BSUK and GB Baseball to develop a long term strategy that is deliverable through a sustainable business model.

Having a facility like this comes at a cost. Fans at the warm up game weren’t allowed any form of bag - a tactic to encourage the purchase of expensive food ($8 for a hotdog and $14 for a can of beer).

The regularity of games, a steady flow of people in attendance and a well stocked merchandise store all help with the all important finances.

In Britain, we would have to look at how we can begin to replicate the regularity games and use as well as how we get people to watch.

There are two levels to this. The first is to make sure that clubs are able to play on the best fields they and provide support to drive this forward.

This could include setting minimum standards across NBL, AAA, AA and A levels but to do this we need to start from an audit of each baseball field across the country.

The one thing that stood out was the quality of the playing surface not just in the stadium but everywhere.

Admittedly there are armies of groundskeepers at these Spring Training facilities and clubs are sometimes in the hands of councils and landowners but we should strive for the best that we can achieve.

The second is creating something that can match up with some of the best facilities in Europe and in the US.

It must reflect how we need to grow the game in Great Britain, develop elite level players, host international tournaments and provide a venue for some regular season NBL games and hold the national championships.

Wouldn’t it be great if fans could watch a GB game, an NBL game, the national finals there and wouldn’t it be great if players can hone their skills on a beautiful surface in front of a large crowd of baseball enthusiasts.

And what about hosting and winning the European Championships?

#LetsGoGB

Richard Evans