Baseball History in England

The Yankees and the Red Sox may be about to play the first regular season MLB game on these shores very shortly, but baseball itself has not been a complete stranger to this country. A trawl through English literature finds several references to the game of Base Ball being played on this side of the pond. Once such recent discovery was that from the diarist William Bray, who lived just outside Guildford in the small village of Shere, and documented the playing of the game in 1755.

As part of this discovery, and to celebrate the fact, Guildford Baseball Club were invited by the local council to stage a demonstration of the sport at the annual Youth Games, held in Guildford. Half the club donned their regular club uniforms, whilst the other half wore period costume from that time. The game itself was staged at the Surrey Sports Park, in the ceremonial first pitch was throw out by a direct relation of William Bray, who still lives in the village of Shere.

Images from the day, along with some from a photoshoot in Shere itself can be seen below

 

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