Ahead of the climax of the 2012 British baseball season Herts has received a boost with the addition of catcher Andrew Fulford.
Fulford comes from Tampa, Florida, and he moved to Hemel Hempstead in time for the last few deciding weeks of the regular season.
Herts’ coaching staff had a difficult decision to make. Should they add him to the Herts Falcons roster in the National baseball League or to one of the club’s minor league teams? With only a few more games remaining for the Herts Falcons, Fulford would not have been able to meet the postseason requirement of playing in 45% of the Falcons’ regular season games. However, the 45% requirement does not apply at AA level and Fulford would be able to meet the 20% postseason eligibility in the AA if he appears in all of the Hawks’ remaining regular season games.
On the basis of this the coaches decided to add the American to the Hawks roster. The team is in the middle of an almighty battle with the Sidewinders, London Mammoths and the Daws Hill Spitfires for the top spots in the AA standings, which would give two out of the four teams a home field advantage and a more favourable route through the postseason playoffs.
Andrew Fulford is 21-years-old. His primary position is catcher. He has also played in second base, and can fit pretty much anywhere else in the field. He started playing when he was 4. After spending his early years in the Citrus Park Little League, Fulford went on to play for the varsity team at Sickles High School and later with Cambridge High School finishing as Florida Sate runners-up in 2009. During his career he has played under former MLB players Jody Reed, who played as second basemen for the Boston Red Sox, and Sam Marsonek who was a pitcher with the New York Yankees.
Despite being born in America, Fulford may soon be eligible to play for the Great Britain national team and it wil be interesting to see how he will settle into the British leagues and whether he will be able to attract interest from the GB national team coaches.