An All-Star Game between the GB Lions and the NBL’s best will be played on Sunday May 28th at Farnham Park.
The signature event of the 2017 calendar for Great Britain Baseball is the U23 European Championship, to be played in Austria and the Czech Republic in August, so the primary goal for this year’s All-Star Game is to provide opportunities for players in that age group to showcase their abilities before the EC roster is selected.
The first pitch of a nine inning contest is slated for 12:30pm. Combined with the new Home Plate Series for players to get into, or get back into the sport, an exciting day of baseball lies ahead.
Following Major League Baseball’s model, last year’s NBL-champion head coach Ben Davis will manage the All-Star Team.
Speaking about the game, head coach Liam Carroll had the following to say:
“As it was last year, when the NBL won a closely fought game, this year’s contest is really about the action on the field and giving our youngest senior players a chance to play in front of GB staff, against a solid opponent, and compete for a selection to a European Championship roster. However, just as British Baseball searches to find its way, so does this event, and I have tremendous hopes that we can create a marquee event that can in future draw together the British Baseball community over the long late-May Bank Holiday weekend. All-Star games have a long history here. I would love to expand the playing schedule to include all of our GB age group teams, and add inter-league All-Star games for the Single-, Double- and Triple-A levels. Even more, I’d like to rekindle some of the sorts of events that have marked British Baseball’s past, such as the award dinners held during coaching clinics in Manchester and Cranfield with the likes of Terry Collins and Jim Lefebvre in attendance. Combining the best of what’s in our history with the opportunities we’re afforded now, such as the Farnham Park facility, will be a measure of the sport’s growth”.
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