MLB
WATCH: MLB takes over London
The Cubs and Cardinals came to London to play a two-game series and it turns out the international fans enjoy baseball just as much as the Americans.
Of course, there were some Americans in attendance at MLB’s London Series as the Chicago Cubs took on their rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals in a two-game series, but there were several British people in attendance as well. In total, there were 110,000 fans in attendance at London Stadium across Games 1 and 2 on Saturday and Sunday - 54,662 on Saturday and 55,565 on Sunday. In fact, Saturday’s game was the best-attended MLB Saturday game in eight years.
Even before the games started, fans were able to enjoy the festivities, with a popup takeover of Trafalgar Square by MLB with food and beer, batting cages, and merchandise. The series offered typical American ballpark food and drinks like hotdogs, nachos, and beer, and of course, no American sports classic would be the same without Sweet Caroline. Perhaps one of the best moments of the game, according to our very own Jeffrey May, was when the crowd came together to sing Sweet Caroline in the seventh inning.
Chicago Cubs left fielder Ian Happ provided the majority of the entertainment on Saturday, hitting a solo homer to dead center (albeit helped greatly by the 385-foot fence) to start off the scoring for the Cubs. He later hit another homer into the Cardinals bullpen, followed by three hits by Cristopher Morel, two by Nick Madrigal, and finally, Dansby Swanson hit a two-run homer with two outs in the ninth to bring the game to a 9-1 score. The Cardinals came back with a vengeance on Sunday to even the series with a 7-5 victory over the Cubs.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said “the number of people who identify as baseball fans in the UK has doubled” since the league held their first London Series there in 2019. Though he did not provide an official figure to back that up, this year’s series did seem to have a good amount of fans actually from the UK, in addition to Americans living abroad long-term. Manfeld also confirmed that MLB will be back in the UK again next year with the Mets and Phillies, so the success of the league across the pond should only grow as they keep this momentum going.