Growing up the sport I was (and still am) obsessed with was football. Being a season ticket holder since I was 9 years old, I thought football would be the only sport that I was dedicated to for the rest of my life. However, I sit here now, 21 years old, with three separate sports important to me for different reasons. Football, baseball and rugby league. So what happened to a northern lad to become a baseball fan?
In late 2018, due to work, my dad had to move and live in Atlanta for the best part of 9 months. During this time he was telling me about the sports culture there. He’d often wax lyrical about how he could wake up at 7am on a Saturday, watch all the Premier League games before 1pm and then college football would be on for him to enjoy. However, once college football season ended a new season started, baseball season. My dad was hesitant, like any Englishman would be when he hears about baseball. We all had those preconceived notions about baseball. Despite this, his new found friends dragged him to the game. I would now hear about the Atlanta Braves whenever I would call my dad. This was my first real exposure, but I still wasn’t convinced.
In July of 2019, I went out to visit my dad in Atlanta for a week, a week that changed my life (and sleep schedule) forever. The day I landed, despite being very jet lagged, I tried to watch some of the baseball game on TV. I fell asleep quite quickly, however I now know that Mike Soroka was pitching for the Braves against the Nationals. Then I was taken to SunTrust Park for my first game, Braves v Royals. Despite losing 5-4 on the night, I was hooked, watching every game. Suddenly I was worried if the Braves lead in the division was going to be enough to get them over the line, it was instant admiration for the game.
Once I was back from this trip I was wondering if there was a baseball team near me, that’s how I found the Manchester Baseball Club. I thought about joining there and then, but with my GCSEs not too far away, and the season coming to an end, I thought I would sign up Summer 2020 when I was done with school. For some reason I ended up not being able to join in 2020 or 2021, can’t remember why now, and I was back in the same predicament in 2022. I had my A-Levels coming up, but this time, a little bit more sure of myself, I went down to the first indoor practice and I have been around the club ever since. I say ‘around’ because I have never actually played a full season. In 2022 I stopped to revise for my A-Levels, and then in 2023 and 2024 I worked at a summer camp in America, and will be doing the same in 2025.
Baseball and I have become symbiotic. My dissertation at university is on British Baseball, since 2022 I have been awake for every minute and every heartbreak of the Atlanta Braves postseason, and 2023 I travelled to Brno to watch Great Britain play Spain in the European Championship Final. However, close to the best moment of my baseball journey was the final out for the Braves to win the 2021 World Series, but personally my best moment was the 5th July 2023, a group of friends that I had made at camp over the summer took our day off to go and watch the Cleveland Guardians play the Atlanta Braves. Seeing the team I had fallen in love with four years later, win 8-1, Mike Soroka pitching, honestly up there with one of the happiest days of my life. The Guardian fans I was with, didn’t agree as much.
So that’s how a northern lad became a baseball fan.