Category: Adult Leagues

Hunlock Series managers announced. The Live Draft is this Tuesday night.
by Herts Baseball News Editor

Hunlock Series managers announced. The Live Draft is this Tuesday night.

We are counting down to the 2021 Hunlock Series Draft which will take place this Tuesday, 14 September at 8:00pm. Players and fans can follow the Draft picks here as they happen. Participants will also be able to interact and chat about the Draft on the Herts Facebook Page and Herts Twitter as the managers make their picks. We understand the Draft may also be streamed live and viewers will be able to listen in on the discussions between the managers. If so, we will post an update with the live stream link.

Five teams go into this year’s competition. The mystery team, Formosa Islanders, were announced a few days ago and there will be four other teams. The managerial appointments have just been announced.

  • Mike Wakelam – Blue team
  • Brad Charalambous – Grey team
  • Matt Bell – Black team
  • Aspi Dimitrov – Red team
  • Formosa Islanders – (manager to be confirmed)

Fans will see some new faces in the Hunlock Series this year who have joined the club in the last few weeks, so there will be an element of surprise in Tuesday’s Draft. Some of them may be new to Herts fans but they are not new to the game. The Hunlock Series could be a glimpse at some of the new players who will be wearing the Herts uniform for the first time in 2022.

HOW TO REGISTER

All Hunlock Series players will be drafted into teams. To be eligible for the Draft players will need to update their availability for all the Hunlock Series dates in the online Clubhouse by 6pm on Tuesday, 14 September. If you miss the deadline or the first one or two weeks of games, don’t worry. New players will still be eligible to play but will have to be assigned as free agents after the Draft.

If you already have a Clubhouse account you can update availability by logging on with your existing username and password. Click here to go to the Clubhouse.

If you do not have a Clubhouse account but wish to play in the Hunlock Series, please register here and select “Play Hunlock Series” in the membership category list. After registering you can log on and mark your availability.

To be eligible to play in the Hunlock Series, players must be 14 years of age or above on 31 December 2021.

ENTRY FEE
2021 club members do not have to pay an entry fee as the Hunlock Series is part of their membership package. If you don’t have a Hunlock Series team shirt, you can buy one before your first game. The cost is £6.

New players or players from other clubs can play by paying the £12 entry fee which includes a free Hunlock Series shirt of the team which has drafted them.

Mystery team enters the 2021 Hunlock Series
by Herts Baseball News Editor

Mystery team enters the 2021 Hunlock Series

The opening day of the 2021 Hunlock Series is approaching and it has just been announced that a mystery team named the Formosa Islanders has entered the Series.

What do we know about them? We have very little information but a quick search on the internet indicates that The Republic of Formosa was a republic that existed on the island of Taiwan in 1895 between the formal cession of Taiwan by the Qing dynasty of China to the Empire of Japan by the Treaty of Shimonoseki and its being taken over by Japanese troops. That’s as much as we have at the moment but our investigative journalists are on the case and we will keep you updated as we find out more but we may have to wait until the Hunlock Series games to get a first look at the Islanders.

The LIve Draft is next week
For those who are new to the Hunlock Series, in the days leading up to the Draft, the 100+ Herts players (aged 14 and over) and newly registered players are listed as available to pick in the Hunlock Series Draft. The team managers then take turns picking players one by one over 20 or so rounds of the Draft. It will be interesting to see which players among the club’s 100+ players will be picked in the first round and who will be the very first pick.  In previous years, that honour has gone primarily to Conner Brown. Who will it be this year? The Draft will be done live on Tuesday evening, 14 September.  We will provide more details in due course.

Make sure you are in it
Historically the Herts adult league team managers have used the Hunlock Series games to evaluate current and new players in preparation for the new season, to populate their rosters and positions and to decide which leagues the Herts teams should go into in 2022.

HOW TO REGISTER

All Hunlock Series players will be drafted into teams. To be eligible for the Draft players will need to update their availability for all the Hunlock Series dates in the online Clubhouse by 6pm on Tuesday , 14 September. If you miss the deadline or the first one or two weeks of games, don’t worry. New players will still be eligible to play but will have to be assigned as free agents after the Draft.

If you already have a Clubhouse account you can update availability by logging on with your existing username and password. Click here to go to the Clubhouse.

If you do not have a Clubhouse account but wish to play in the Hunlock Series, please register here and select “Play Hunlock Series” in the membership category list. After registering you can log on and mark your availability.

To be eligible to play in the Hunlock Series, players must be 14 years of age or above on 31 December 2021.

ENTRY FEE
2021 club members do not have to pay an entry fee as the Hunlock Series is part of their membership package. If you don’t have a Hunlock Series team shirt, you can buy one before your first game. The cost is £6.

New players or players from other clubs can play by paying the £12 entry fee which includes a free Hunlock Series shirt of the team which has drafted them.

Basing Hill Ballpark project to commence this week
by Herts Baseball News Editor

Basing Hill Ballpark project to commence this week

Earlier today Herts Baseball Club confirmed that they have appointed Inscapes as the contractor for the Basing Hill Ballpark project. They are a company with extensive experience in this industry and among their clients are some high profile venues such as The Millennium Stadium in Cardiff (video below), Plymouth Argyle Football Club, Gleneagles Golf Course, Hampton Court Palace among others.

Inscapes Millennium Stadium Pitch Construction

They are scheduled to commence work at Basing Hill this Friday, 10 September.  The project is almost identical to Herts’ 2009-2010 project of building Diamond One at Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead.

They will first spray off the playing area and a week or two later will cultivate, re-grade and level the field before they plant the new grass seeds.

It is expected that the new grass playing surface will be ready for its first baseball league games in May 2022 in time for the new season.

Below are images from some of the projects implemented by Inscapes.

Players have started registering for the 2021 Hunlock Series
by Herts Baseball News Editor

Players have started registering for the 2021 Hunlock Series

The 2021 BBF league season will soon be coming to a close, but arguably the best part of the season is still to come.

Every year, just when the MLB season enters its most exciting stage, players come to Grovehill Ballpark for a competition in memory of Herts Baseball Club’s number 36, the late Kyle Hunlock.

This is the fifteenth year of the Hunlock Series. In its inaugural year in 2006 two teams were involved, the Falcons and the Hawks. Herts Baseball Club has been growing rapidly since then and the format of the competition has evolved. As players sign up over the next few weeks we will know how many teams will enter the Series this year.

SERIES FORMAT

This year’s competition will be played over three Sundays. The opening games will be played on 26 September. The second round of games will take place on 3 October, with the final round scheduled for 10 October.

In 2014 we introduced “The 9th Inning Games” where games are played over a single inning. We will be doing this again this year. This format recreates the tension and drama of the ninth inning. Can the teams manufacture the all important go-ahead run? Can they deliver the walk-off hits? Can the pitchers and defence execute with the game on the line?

THE DRAFT

As in previous years, the teams will be selected by the team managers during the Hunlock Series Draft. Who will be the first round picks? How will minor league players and newcomers perform alongside NBL players?

Over the years we have seen how decisions made during the Draft can shape the outcome of the Series before a pitch has been thrown. The managers will have to make carefully calculated decisions if they are to put together a team which can compete for the Hunlock Series title, otherwise they face miserable few weeks.

With all of the club’s managers and coaching staff observing these games, players who have been pushing for promotion to a higher league team will have the perfect opportunity during the Hunlock Series to make a claim to play on the bigger stage in 2022. The club has also received enquiries from many potential new members over the last few weeks and this event is the ideal opportunity for them to come and play.

HOW TO REGISTER

All Hunlock Series players will be drafted into teams. To be eligible for the Draft you will need to update your availability for ALL the Hunlock Series dates in the online Clubhouse by Tuesday, 14 September. If you miss the deadline or the first one or two weeks of games, don’t worry. You will still be eligible to play but will have to be assigned as a free agent after the Draft.

If you already have a Clubhouse account you can update availability by logging on with your existing username and password. Click here to go to the Clubhouse.

If you do not have a Clubhouse account but wish to play in the Hunlock Series, please register here and select “Play Hunlock Series” in the membership category list. After registering you can log on and mark your availability.

To be eligible to play in the Hunlock Series, players must be 14 years of age or above on 31 December 2021.

ENTRY FEE
2021 club members do not have to pay an entry fee as the Hunlock Series is part of their membership package. If you don’t have a Hunlock Series team shirt, you can buy one before your first game. The cost is £6.

New players or players from other clubs can play by paying the £12 entry fee which includes a free Hunlock Series shirt of the team which has drafted them.

Baseball fans around the world react after Herts Falcons’ heroics
by Herts Baseball News Editor

Baseball fans around the world react after Herts Falcons’ astonishing comeback

It is no secret that this has been a difficult season for the Herts Falcons competing in the NBL – Britain’s top baseball league. Going into last weekend’s games they had lost all 22 of their league games this year.  They were also missing most of their players who have previous National Baseball League experience.

On Sunday, they went into the final inning trailing by 10 runs to the London Legends but they managed to do something almost unheard of in the game of baseball, scoring 11 runs to win it 20-19.

The news started spreading on social media like wildfire and a post on Reddit has so far generated 236 comments from baseball fans around the world. A very enjoyable read for Herts baseball fans to see what the rest of the world thinks about Herts and British baseball from a distance. Some of the people commenting even took the time to look into Herts Baseball Club’s team structure asking the question “and why are there Double-A and Single-A affiliates for these teams. Are there farm systems involved here?”.

Click here to view this, mostly light-hearted, discussion on Reddit. Note: There is some adult language in some of the comments.

A look at the greatest comebacks in MLB regular season history shows just how rare this achievement is. In 1994, the Houston Astros did come back from 0-11 down in the fourth inning to beat the St Louis Cardinals 15-12, but we cannot see an 11-run comeback in the ninth inning.  The biggest ninth-inning comeback in MLB regular season history that we can see was in 1986 when the California Angels scored 8 runs in the bottom of the ninth to win it 13-12.

With manager Cris Hiche out of the country due to family bereavement and interim manager Phil Clark also away, it was up to Michael Cresswell and Will Zucker to lead the team on Sunday and they certainly did that. Cresswell ended up hitting his first home run at NBL level and, despite not usually being used as a pitcher, he picked up the win pitching six innings in that game.

This first win of the season will not be enough to bring the team back into the playoff race, but the Falcons have certainly won many new fans.

This is not the first time that the Falcons attract international attention.  In 2019 after a rain delay became a cancellation, the team washed away their disappointment by stripping down to their underwear, sprinting from the dugout, through the rain, and sliding across the outfield. The moment was memorably caught on camera. It proved a success not only on Herts social media channels, but on a Facebook page covering baseball around the world – where it racked up more than 20,000 views.

Herts Falcons appoint Clark as interim manager
by Herts Baseball News Editor

Herts Falcons appoint Clark as interim manager

Herts Baseball Club has confirmed that interim manager, Carlos Casal, has stepped down from his position and the club has appointed Phil Clark as the new interim manager while manager Cris Hiche is out of the country for family reasons.

Clark is one of the longest serving members of the Herts Falcons.  He joined the team in 2012 when they recorded their best season in the NBL reaching the national final where they lost to the Harlow Nationals in game 6.

The Falcons have had a difficult season so far but in the last few weeks there have been signs that the team is regaining its competitiveness coming close to picking up their first win in extra innings against the Lancashire Legends.

Their next game is this Sunday, 4 July, against the London Legends at Roundhsaw Playing Fields in Croydon. First pitch is at 11:30am.

vs

Details

Date Time League Season
4 July 2021 11:30 am National Baseball League 2021

Field

Roundshaw Playing Fields
Roundshaw Park Playing Fields, London Borough of Sutton, London, Greater London, England, CR0 4RW, United Kingdom

Results

Team12345678910RHEOutcome
London Legendsxxxxxxxxxx15xxWin
Falconsxxxxxxxxxx3xxLoss
Herts Hawks appoint Purewal as new manager
by Herts Baseball News Editor

Herts Hawks appoint Purewal as new manager

Earlier this month Herts Hawks player-manager, Tetsuro Shinkawa (pictured below), was informed that he will have to undergo a non-baseball medical procedure and he is expected to require a period of recovery after it which will keep him away from baseball.

Everyone at the club hopes that the procedure will go well and that Tets will be back to full fitness quickly after that.

The club has just announced that Kyle Purewal (pictured at the top) has been appointed as the new player-manager of the Herts Hawks.  The 28-year-old joined the club at the start of this season having previously played in Canada and in the UK with Bracknell. Since joining the club in the Spring, Purewal has also been actively involved off the field taking on a role in the club’s media department.

His first game as Hawks manager is this Sunday, 27 June, when the Hawks will host the Essex Archers at Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead. First pitch is at 12pm.

Herts submits its bid to host the 2021 National Baseball Championships
by Herts Baseball News Editor

Herts submits bid to host the 2021 National Baseball Championships

Herts Baseball Club has submitted its bid to host 2021 Postseason Playoff games in the adult leagues of the British Baseball Federation (BBF). If the BBF awards any of these events to Herts, they will be staged at the club’s Grovehill Ballpark in Hemel Hempstead.

Richmond Flames lifting the NBL trophy at Grovehill Ballpark in 2010 (photo by event-photos.co.uk)

The events which clubs are invited to bid for include the Wild Card Playoffs and National Semi-Finals and Finals of all four BBF league tiers, from the Single-A League to the National Baseball League (NBL).

Grovehill Ballpark has previously hosted the National Baseball Championships (NBCs) in 2010 and 2012.  In 2013 the national baseball and softball complex at Farnham Park was constructed and these NBC games were held at that venue since then.

Action from the 2010 NBL playoffs hosted by Herts (photo by event-photos.co.uk)

However, the costs of staging these events at Farnham Park are proving to be very high and the BBF has decided to open the opportunity for clubs to host these high-profile events at their own ballparks similar to how the Football Association held England national team and Football League Playoff Final games around the country while the new Wembley Stadium was being built.

Championship-winning moments like this from 2010 could return to Grovehill Ballpark this year (photo by Will Baxter)

Herts Baseball Club has also expressed interest in hosting the National Youth Baseball Championships and is awaiting details from the BBF of the bidding process.

The Postseason games will be played in September. The exact game schedule and the successful bidder(s)  will be announced by the BBF in the coming weeks.

Matt Davis joins the Herts coaching staff
by Herts Baseball News Editor

Coach Matt Davis to work with Herts players this summer

In June 2019, just ahead of the MLB London Series between the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, Herts baseball players had the rare opportunity to be coached by Monte Brooks, head coach of The Master’s University baseball team with over 700 college wins.

He was accompanied by a number of player-coaches from his university. One of them was Matt Davis (pictured above, far left). This week it was confirmed that he will be back working with Herts players during the Wednesday evening baseball sessions at Basing Hill Ballpark twice a month over the next three months, starting tomorrow, Wednesday, 9 June.

Matt Davis was a pitcher with Liberty University (NCAA Division 1) from 1990-1991 and with The Master’s University (NAIA Division 1) from 1992-1994. In 2020 he was assistant coach at The Master’s University under coach, Monte Brooks. Currently, he is chaplain for the London Broncos (Rugby League).

https://youtu.be/gm6BuueGBts
Coach Monte Brooks at Basing Hill Ballpark in June 2019

Matt Davis specialises in pitching but he will also cover other aspects of the game with the Herts players this summer.

Although these sessions are for club members only, new players are able to come to one of these sessions to try baseball and to help them decide if they would like to join the club. Contact the club to book a place at an upcoming session.

Basing Hill Ballpark crowdfunding deadline extended
by Herts Baseball News Editor

Basing Hill Ballpark crowdfunding deadline extended

The Basing Hill Ballpark crowdfunding campaign deadline has been extended to July 21.

Herts Baseball Club suffered a setback in March when they learned that they narrowly missed out on funding from The Mayor of London‘s Make London Fund.

Since then the club has been in discussions with businesses and organisations and, although the campaign is still far from its fundraising target, it may receive a considerable boost if one or several of these discussions lead to a pledge.

The extension of the deadline gives the potential backers, who have expressed interest in the Basing Hill Ballpark project, additional time to consider whether they would like to make a pledge.

To date, the campaign has received pledges from 124 backers amounting to £12,528 which is 22% of the £55,804 target.

Back the Basing Hill Ballpark project on Spacehive

Businesses, sponsors and other backers who may be interested to support the project can contact the club to discuss ways in which this could be a good fit and beneficial for them. They would have the additional assurance from the fact that the club passed the project viability verification process carried out by the independent organisation Locality, which was a prerequisite to pitch to the Mayor of London.