Baseball chiefs touch base with plans for game in Ireland

MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL is to undertake a viability study about playing competitive games in Ireland.

The sport’s governing body is discussing a plan to move regular-season games to Europe in the next two to three years with Ireland amongst the countries which will be assessed.

“We do plan to play in Europe over the next number of years,” Paul Archey, a senior vice president of Major League Baseball International, said. “We are at a very early stage in the procedure and we have no specific plans. But we are looking at a lot of different countries and yes, it is fair to say Ireland will be one of the countries which will be assessed by us in time.

“We are doing our investigating and research at present. Things are really at a preliminary stage. We are assessing issues such as stadiums and weather patterns. But we have not looked at specific places just yet.”

Baseball has been aggressively expanding its presence outside the United States and Canada, playing season openers in Monterrey, Mexico (1999), Tokyo (2000 and this year) and San Juan, Puerto Rico (2001). The Montreal Expos will play 22 ‘home’ games this season in San Juan.

Mr Archey explained the MLB will undertake intensive research before finalising their decision which, he said, would be based on a number of important factors.

“Firstly we look at the issue of logistics and decide on the ease of reaching the venue for teams travelling from the United States,” he said. “Then we will look at the stadium itself and if it is up to MLB standards. The playing field needs to be 330 feet down the line and 400 feet to centre field.

“The weather pattern is another factor of course in deciding if a country could host games or spring training. After all of that we must consider the popularity of the game in that particular country.”

On that point, he added there is a strong baseball following amongst Irish people in the United States and that MLB has already undertaken a number of development projects in this country over the past number of years in a bid to heighten the profile of the sport.

Baseball, the most American of pastimes, also boasts a strong Irish influence, he explained

“There has been a lot of interest from time to time from certain owners of Irish heritage about playing regular season games or taking spring training to Ireland. The Red Sox and the Dodgers in particular have strong Irish connections. So it is a country which we are well aware of.”

Commissioner Bud Selig has not yet given the go-ahead, although he's excited about the possibilities of taking the game all over the world.

“We need to do more of it and we need to do more of it on a regular basis. We're going to step up the internationalisation of the game and go a lot of places. We have a lot of clubs anxious to go wherever we're going.”