The Herts Cardinals are a baseball team based in London, UK. We practice and play in Basing Hill Ballpark North West London.
We are a new team competing in the AAA Division of the British Baseball Federation (BBF) as a member of Herts Baseball Club. The Cardinals pride themselves on having fun while competing, getting the best of our abilities through good practice habits, collaborating with our parent club, and actively promote an anti-discriminatory and inclusive atmosphere where all team members feel welcome.
The core group of our players found a new home within Herts Baseball Club, following the decision by the London Mets to dissolve the London Mammoths. This history describes the original formation of the Mammoths, and their transition to the Cardinals.
Many Cardinals players either made their way through the youth ranks of the London Mets or have been promoted to AAA from lower levels. The team also has a long tradition of providing a platform for players to be called up to play in the NBL, the highest level of British baseball.
Formed in 2012 in a slightly dingy pub near Barnard Park in Islington, London, the London Mets’ original Spring Training facility, the Mammoths were the London Mets first team to compete in the Double-A Division of the BBF.
After two unsuccessful playoff runs that saw the Mammoths travel as far as Poole, the team brought home the AA National Championship after an undefeated season in 2014, following a 23-2 victory in the play-off final over the Bolton Robots of Doom.
The Mammoths first entered AAA in 2015. In ten years of competition at the AAA level, the Mammoths have successfully made it through to the BBF National Championship playoffs 7 times, reaching the semi-finals in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2023 and 2024. In 2019, the team was three outs away from reaching the AAA finals and in 2024 the team made it through the first two rounds (of five!), before being defeated in the third round.
Over the years the Mammoths (now Cardinals) have been managed by Matt Cartwright (2012-2013) (assisted by Yves Schwarzbart), Yves Schwarzbart and John Peters (2014-2015), Yves Schwarzbart (2016-2017), James Hicks and Sean Bennett (2017-2019). In its final years, the Mammoths were managed by Sean Bennett, Osvaldo Badia Rivero, and Brian Dearing (2020-2021). Since 2022, in its new form, the Herts Cardinals have been managed by Brian Dearing.