England

Players who were born here

England is one of the four constituent nations of the United Kingdom and is located on Great Britain off the coast of Europe.

Major leaguers born in England had a big impact on the early game of baseball in the United States, but after 1920 English-born players became much more rare. Baseball pioneers Harry Wright and Al Reach were born in England, as was Henry Chadwick who was instrumental in laying down the game's early rules and publicizing it as the "national pastime".

The first two major league games to be played in England were on June 29-30, 2019 when the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox played two games at London's Olympic Stadium. The experience was to be repeated in 2020, but this was pre-empted by the Coronavirus pandemic. After the dust settled, it was reprised as an annual event marketed as the "London Series" starting in 2023.

Further Reading

• David Block: Pastime Lost: The Humble, Original, and Now Completely Forgotten Game of English Baseball, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, NE, 2019. ISBN 978-1-4962-0851-4
• Anthony Castrovince: "Meet some of Britain’s biggest baseball fans", mlb.com, June 25, 2019. [1]
• Josh Chetwynd and Brian A. Belton: British Baseball and the West Ham Club: History of a 1930s Professional Team in East London, McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 2007.
• Michael Clair: "Here's how baseball has grown in England, from factory towns to London Stadium", mlb.com, June 28, 2019. [2]
• Andrew Weltch: "British Baseball: How a curious version of the game survives in parts of England and Wales", in The National Pastime, SABR, Volume 28 (2008), pp. 30-34.