Blue Sox on their Feet

See more: Baseball

Monday, June 29, 2009, 12:37 | Sport | 0 Comments |

Baseball has come a long way since the days of All-American heroes like Joe DiMaggio and Babe Ruth. All the way to Leicester in fact. Soar Magazine sent Paul Dhillon to find out more…

Like your average British sports fan, Mark Meredith had only a passing knowledge of baseball, until a 1993 trip to Miami. There he discovered the sport and the atmosphere that goes with it, whilst going for a dubious ‘quiet couple of drinks’ in a bar during a World Series game.

Meredith brought his enthusiasm for the game home and began to play an active part after learning of the small, yet committed baseball community in the UK. Following stints with the Birmingham Maple Leafs and the Sileby Vikings, Mark took the plunge and led a huge recruitment drive, including radio and newspaper adverts, to establish the Leicester Blue Sox. During a trying training year in 2006, prior to joining the BBF Midlands League, the club were suspended from their first home in Mountsorrel after local residents took exception to being rained on by wayward hits.

By the end of 2007, things were looking up, with the tireless efforts of Mark, team member Shaun Hill and help from the Leicester City Council, the Blue Sox found their current residency at Western Park. This stable footing with scope for improved facilities, including a permanent backstop fixture, meant Meredith was confident his side were on the ‘home run’. England’s eighth biggest city had a baseball team and a certain identity started to develop, to Mark’s delight: “We have blue jerseys, I’m a Leicester fan and those colours were easily adopted!”

It was not plain sailing, however, as the side were ravaged by injuries during the 2008 campaign.

“It didn’t go how we had planned. We had a lot of injuries to key players and we never really recovered.”

Things have been tough in the early part of this season too. The Blue Sox currently prop up the BBF Midlands division in fifth place, although the club only have to move up to fourth to secure a play-off spot. Meredith is optimistic that the side will secure a respectable finish by the close of season in August.

Although respect for opponents is high on his agenda, he speaks of how well-drilled Birmingham appear, yet Mark is not short of self-belief either.

“We must beat the Birmingham Maple Leafs and the Milton Keynes Bucks on a regular basis. I know the squad and the players and they are competitors just like me. I didn’t create this squad to be also-rans and the play-offs are a real possibility. Come the end of August I expect us to be in third place.”

Asked where he sees the side going in the coming years, Meredith’s focus falls not on stashes of silverware, but the development of the club as a multi-faceted, highly structured and sustainable entity.

“I’ve got my development team as well as the first team and looking ahead I hope to have the kids’ team set up within two years.”

The thought of playing host to more Midlands rivals excites Meredith too.

“Hopefully we are going to see teams from places like Nottingham and Derby emerge. We want people from those places to look at us and think ‘If Leicester can do it, then why not us?’”

Apart from his considerable local pride, the underlying sentiment conveyed by Meredith is a passionate drive to get more people, young and old, involved with the game he loves.

“I want to get children playing baseball in the county and the city. I have been in touch with a number of schools and I’m waiting for a response. What we are offering is totally free and we have been working in conjunction with BaseballSoftballUK (the sport’s development agency in the UK) to give young people a new focus and keep them off the streets. It will keep the game sustainable for the future.”

Meredith’s 2009 draft includes two Canadians, one of whom has Minor League Experience, two Americans, and players from Central American baseball hotspots, the Dominican Republic and Honduras. There are also players with a history of excelling at other sports, including two former Leicester Panthers American football players. Despite the esteemed role call in the current squad, Meredith insists no experience is necessary.

“Come and try it, it’s as simple as that. I don’t mind if you’ve never played any similar sports before, just come and have a look!”

Over the Atlantic, in the home of the questionably titled ‘World Series’ (involving only teams from the US and Canada), the sport is going through a difficult time. Allegations of doping are rife. Alex ‘A-Rod’ Rodriguez’s recent admission of steroid use even drew derision from President Obama, who branded it a “depressing incident for the sport”. In Leicester, there is a reason for optimism with determined, forward-thinking characters, like Meredith, who are an important part of this developing sport.

Interested? Touch base with the Leicester Blue Sox by visiting

www.leicesterbluesox.co.uk or e-mailing info@leicesterbluesox.co.uk