⚾ Why Baseball Sucks in United Kingdom - Ninh explains ... 

FOOTNOTES: - Yes, I'll be doing a similar one for American Football (as per popular demand) but it's not as bad as everyone thinks. Like baseball, it doesn't suck or suffer from poor organisation, it's just not really a thing over here. - FOR CLARIFICATION: I do not find Cricket boring. To any Cricket fans that are whining - I did NOT say that I (myself) find Cricket boring and long ... that's just the typical response from any baseball fan who doesn't understand Cricket. Please stop being so triggered ... everyone is entitled to an opinion. - There are some whiny bitches who will say 'oh you didn't do your research, there are more than 1 purpose built baseball ground'. Actually there isn't. Each one of the 76 clubs has baseball fields and they vary in size and standard. There is only ONE PURPOSE BUILT (i.e. built for the sole use of baseball) facility in the country - Farnham Park - which both the BBF and BSUK designate ON THEIR WEBSITE as the sole PURPOSE BUILT facility in the country. This is fact. Maybe you should do your own research before you inaccurately say things like this. - Reddit seems to hate my videos for some reason. If anybody knows why, please enlighten me ... !

British Ice Hockey: "No other sport can match us in terms of having very little facilities to play in" British Baseball: "Hold our singular baseball field"

Frankly having 1 Dedicated facility is 1 more than I expected. Lol

At least the Mets can win in UK baseball (0:57)

So, the British attitude toward baseball is basically the same as the one I get from fellow Americans when I try to explain that I love Cricket.

There are two stages of British people watching baseball: 1. This is just rounders. 2. I don't understand what's going on! Why isn't this rounders?

It's also worth mentioning that a lot of the players on the UK's national team are foreign pro players who qualify because their parents were born in countries that were under British rule at the time.

how about this for a video: "Why Cricket in the US Sucks" Edit: How did this get 190 likes? Edit #2: Coming back to this after 3 years, and it seems that I've created a war in the comments section...

i kinda wish that baseball was a bit more available here, it honestly seems really fun

The last point is why I would have rather seen MLB play in the Netherlands given there national team constantly over achieves, and two they have a professional league

This is officially a series now

I’m more surprised by the fact that Pakistan has a national baseball team

So you're telling me that each time I've visited the UK I've been in the top 3K of baseball players

As an American who often boasts about "hitting it for six" or "yeah I got caught out" I understand your concern 🇺🇸♥️🇬🇧

To be honest I didn’t know you guys had it over there

I play baseball in the UK, along with over 20,000 others in recent growth years. We had a record turn out for spring training last week. It's a truly great game and sadly underrepresented in the UK, but will continue to grow with positive press (perhaps not such titles as this video)

now you have to do a ninh explains the rules of british baseball now.

Thanks for this examination of Baseball in the U.K. I, too, am surprised that even one dedicated field exists. Even more, I'm stunned that baseball leagues exist and seem modeled after the American system - which can be a controversial topic. However, when Baseball bites, you become a lifer. Baseball is a humbling game and I guess because it's so hard that's one of the hooks that keeps us. Decades ago, I became more interested in the numbers than in the play on the field. Yet in those clips you showed - clips of less than spectacular play - I felt the old longing to be out there playing. Brits playing baseball may meet some ridicule in America - but not from me. Those guys you showed were playing at a level far above anything I experienced: I couldn't even make my high school team. So, to see the stumbling and bumbling that occurs at all levels doesn't make me less appreciative. They're in the arena. I admire them. It's OK that it's a club sport for the most part: I'm surprised that there's even this level of interest. Thanks again and, "Go British Baseball!"

"if you cant win don't try" that's the most British thing i've ever herd .

5:21 are we just gonna ignore how fast that Pakistani dude threw to first?

2 videos in a short space of time heavily featuring Derby County, you know how to make a man happy

Great video. The footage of that first pitcher in the domestic league really puts it into perspective. For any Brits who don’t know, you start facing pitchers of that speed when you’re about 10 or 11 in the states, and I hit against my first 90-95 mph pitcher when I was 14. I, and basically everyone I know who also played through high school, has played with and against current minor and major leaguers. I didn’t know how small baseball was in the UK, so this was really shocking to watch. I hope the MLB increases British engagement by having more games in the UK, allowing our game to reach a larger audience and not be so isolated in its already popular locations (Latin America, US, Korea, Japan).

I was going to go the London Series game to watch my Cubs play the Cards, hopefully I can fly from Chicago to London to celebrate the great game of baseball

It's not fare to compare test cricket with baseball. T20 Cricket is rapidly gaining popularity in all corners of the world including USA.

Cricket is more about class, patience and skill.. doesn’t matter if it is 5 days or 20 over.

Please tell me your going to do an updated video and say that GB qualified or the world baseball classic. Not only that, but, they automatically qualified for the next one as well. They lost to USA by only 4 runs, Canada by 10, Mexico by one and beat Columbia by 3. Now they are guaranteed to have an influx of money to help grow the game in the uk.

6:05 couldn’t agree more I live in the uk and have recently taken a liking to American football and everyone including my family are calling me stupid for liking the sport when they literally don’t know anything about the game itself

‘Cause we’ve got cricket, and we love it! 🏏

The UK doesn't like American Football and Baseball, they like the NFL and MLB as leagues. They're huge leagues with massive spending, popularity and fan culture, from a country that speaks the same language as us, and their afternoon games are primetime over here. Most people who are fans of these two leagues probably couldn't name a professional team outside of these leagues. I think the main problem with Baseball is that we already have a popular slow bat and ball game where people mainly go to just drink beer on a sunny afternoon and really you don't need two of these sports. There is little overlap between countries were cricket is popular and countries where baseball is popular. Next video should be: Why British american football is a hilarious shitshow. As a Leicester Falcons fan, I'd enjoy that. p.s. As a ski jumping fan, how many rules videos have you got planned covering various skiing disciplines?

I love how Take Me Out to the Ballgame plays happily in the background in the middle of this tragically sad video. Great video. Long live baseball!!

Congratulations on UK for qualifying to the World Baseball Classic.

I have a lot of ex Cricket players posting on comments complaining they don't want their sons playing Cricket because it has evolved into too dangerous a sport . Not exactly sure why - except maybe having to stand in forever as a batsman and getting thrown against. In Australia it seems that baseball is slowly gaining in popularity at Cricket's expense. The London crowd at the Red Sox/ Yankees series seemed to like it - and I bet if you polled them they would say there was more action in a shorter time than Cricket and the field play was superior compared to the tepid field play in Cricket.

I think I must be the only Miami Marlins fan in Manchester. Quite proud of that! On the other hand I also follow the Hanshin Tigers from Japan and one of the customers at the supermarket I work in is from Japan and is also a Hanshin fan so hey, maybe there are loads of fans of less successful teams all around the UK who we don't know about!

The British Baseball League and British Baseball Association remind of the early years of the American League and National League disconnection during the infancy stages of Major League Baseball.

Funnily enough, this video was the reason I found a team near me. I would never have googled baseball in Cornwall without this video so Ninh, thank you for helping me find a team!

The organ music in the background gave me a tingly feeling. I'm itching for a seventh-inning stretch right about now. I can only imagine that those little bits of culture that accompany sports in their native lands become exotic when they cross borders.

If the MLB comes back to London in 2021, I'd love to see your impressions of it.

Sick video ninh! I love this style it’s very interesting. You could do rugby or another sport in the us? Or what about afl outside of Australia?

I’m British and I find baseball very interesting and thinking of joining a baseball club soon. Wish there was more interest in the sport in the UK

Another very good video. One small (I mean VERY small) turnaround possibility is if the overseas territories of the UK in the Caribbean were to adopt Baseball similar to that of the Dutch Caribbean, as stars such as Kenley Jansen/Didi Gregorius/Andrew Jones and others have emerged from Curacao in the past 20 years. Even Xander Bogaerts, a top 30 player, came from Aruba. If UK nationals in the Caribbean were to begin playing, similar to the recent trend in another Anglo-Carib nation, the Bahamas, it would significantly benefit the national team similar to that of the Dutch. I think it's rational to think it could occur, although cricket continues to dominate the bat/ball game in Commonwealth areas such as Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago, even with insanely close proximity to the baseball haven of Venezuela. I think it's fair to say there's a growing baseball community in the UK (check out Baseball Brit on twitter, you guys should collaborate), although it will forever pale in comparison to that of the NFL in terms of US sports' growth, and sadly has less potential for growth alone than that of the NBA/NHL due to logistical reasons. Again, though, it's good you mentioned national attitudes, it definitely plays a massive part in even mentioning the sport in a casual context, which is usually how curiosity is peaked in the first place.

I myself have only ever enjoyed North American Sports for a team level. I enjoy Football, Rugby but only ever on a National Level. I got into Cricket in the World Cup but then it has gone away again. Every Sport is good in its own right. However being a North American Sports fan for 3/4 of my life I have taken a lot of stick off people over here. I have even had full blown arguments over it... none started by me. Very hostile atmosphere years ago. You get the usual line, "you aren't American?!?!" To some people following a Sport means you have to be that Nationality to like it! One of my mates when I first met him said I am British therefore should only like Football (Soccer) as that is what he loves more than anything. There is defeinitely a stima or at least there used to be with liking North American Sports on Britain. Everyone bashs the Americans for liking Football but I have never heard a British person mock Canadians for calling it the exact same thing! The biggest joke of all is that Rugby's offical name here is Rugby Football hence why most governing bodies have RFU in them for the Union side of things! People say Americans are stupid for liking Baseball but never say anything about the fact that Baseball is also massive in Japan. Once again they bash Americans for liking Ice Hockey yet... it is way more popular in Canada than America. When you put all thay togethet you start to notice a pattern emerging... any Sport which Americans play is stupid but any Country which also loves it is never mentioned which is why all those people saying that have no real clue what they are talking about. I have been an American Football Fan for 17 years, it is my favourite Sport and always will be, I have been a Packers fan for 17 years and the only thing I have left to buy of theirs is a Gameday ticket. I have liked Baseball for almost just as long but never invested really into a team and I am more of a netural who just enjoys watching the Sport and the same with Ice Hockey. Basketball never has really appealed to me but I still think it is good. In my group of Friends it is weird, they talk about Football... Inhave no clue what is going on but a Sport 3000 miles away I keep track of and know what is going on haha. The biggest give away of all however is when Americans start to like Soccer. British fans of the Sport now say, "they don't do it right!" Or "their Football songs are shit!" "or the MLS is shit!" Yes they actually slam their favourite Sport just because the Americans are now getting into it! That for me is the biggest give away how British People view Americans on Sports. However it can be said it can be the other way round too. However I have met ex College Football Players who all said Rugby was a great Sport and they would love to give it a go. I have also met Americans who love and play Rugby.

Fun video. I’m English, born here, lived here all my life so no allegiance to American sports. However, I really enjoy all the 4 Majors. I’ve seen every Major sport in action live in either the US or Canada and I do really enjoy baseball. I agree that nobody cares rather than they dislike it. I would like to point out though the irony that you CANNOT walk down a UK high street without seeing a Yankees baseball cap on somebody’s head. The only sports merchandise sold in my local supermarket- genuine, official Yankees hats. No other teams either. Just them 🤣😂. Not even British football teams! I’ll have to watch your NFL video. I’d like to say too, I know the rules. I understand a double play, RBI, call strikes and balls almost as well as the comms.

I'm sorry, people turn their noses up at Basketball in favor of NET BALL? I mean, I kind of get it for NFL and Baseball, you've got viable alternatives with rich history, but net ball? Really?

Cricket called slow and boring? T20 hold my beer.

How similar are British baseball and rounders? I've played the latter back in the day, while in summer school in England, and it actually made me love the noble sport of American baseball (I'd love to see an explain video for any of the two British pitch and bat sports)

Why do Brits suck at volleyball?

Well in 2022, the British national team has officially qualified for the 2023 World Baseball Classic. I'm honestly shocked

I hope the game of baseball growth in Great Britain as the years go by. This is such a great spot.

When I was a kid we used to play baseball in school and sometimes with friends in a random field it was so much fun someone really needs to make this bigger in the UK I'd still play now if I had somewhere to go and people to play with.

I play baseball in scotland. I wished they would expand more :( There are only 7 teams which is really a shame. 2 in glasgow, 2 in aberdeen, 2 in edingburgh and 1 close to dundee.

I'm British and I love baseball..... Though I can't carry a baseball bat anywhere I look very suspicious even with a group of friends.

When I played baseball in the UK years ago it was mostly ex-pat Canadians and Americans involved, and they always said that the British players had the wrong throwing technique due to playing cricket.

Even cricket has lost its popularity in the UK, mostly due to it moving to SKy Tv which is expensive. Most kid here play football (association) or to a lesser degree rugby. I've never actually seen baseball being played in the uk in any form, not even in a park.

Challenge accepted. Just finished my first UK baseball season. Ready to build it up.

Bummer! Ice hockey and baseball are the two best North American sports.

Same thing in the US for soccer. Other than the fact that there is quite a bit of soccer fields

When did anybody from cricket call baseball slow and boring ??? That’s right no one

I'm just waiting on the American football episode. I really want you to get into the whole European American football scene because it's endlessly fascinating.

meanwhile in my home country, we play basketball 24/7 when the average height is like 5'3" *facepalm, when we might have better chances to produce talents if we focused on baseball or soccer.

As a British i will say t20 cricket is more entertaining then baseball 😂😂😂😂😂

It's sad. I'm a huge baseball fan and I would love to see it thrive in other parts of the world. Maybe one day lol

Cricket fans will mock Baseball fans which I am a baseball fan for liking a very slow game but some forms of cricket can take 5 days baseball teams can play three games in a five-day.

Being a 15 yr old kid from Britain playing basketball baseball and American football it's really confusing why we don't like American sport because I find it tough to play but that's the fun in all of it. The fun is (for me) the part where you try to get yourself to improve on what your limits are and try to push them further and further until you cant anymore for a couple of months and then retry it until you can't do it anymore and retry until you reach to the top and what you can get from that is experience and without any experience I don't think there's any fun so please and I'm saying this to the general public of Great Britain. TRY IT OUT FIRST BEFORE YOU JUDGE IT BECAUSE YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT TO EXPECT FROM IT

Baseball has a long and rich history in South Africa. Especially in Cape Town. But we are facing many of same problems that you've highlighted. Funding being the main issue, of which there is none. No investment, sponsorship, nothing. Which is shocking considering that we have had players in the MLB and minors for many years, and others playing in national leagues around the world. We had hoped to qualify for the Olympics which would have seen the government invest some money in the game. But it didn't happen. And seeing as the future of baseball is global it's short sighted of governments not to invest in the game. We can't all make the national cricket side but those who don't can use those skills on the baseball field. We have great facilities which have been in place for years and clubs are trying to keep the game going but without a national strategy it will be a struggle. I started playing baseball last year at the age of 31 and I fell in love with the game. I can't speak positively enough of it. Thanks for this content. Hopefully it will help raise the profile of the game since it's not an American point of view.

It is always interesting to see how other sports current status in other places of the world. Keep up the great work

I’m English and I love baseball, subscribe to MLB and I’m a Yankees fan, if only Baseball was bigger over here, I’d go every game

Looks like us Americans and you British people have more in common than we realize.

whos here after gb made wbc

In all honesty, a standard baseball fan is defined by apathy at its finest, unless we are talking playoffs

It is really unfortunate this is the case in the UK. I have thought with the love of cricket in the country, baseball would find some crossover for some. I know it's been that way for me. If I hadn't studied baseball as I have, I believe I would never have been able to watch my first game of cricket with such fascination.

Wow! Being an American I had no idea that there was even that level of interest in Britain in baseball. I love the term, "hand egg." That is hilarious! Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

in 7 years this will change...

As a player in the South West league this is so spot on hahahaha

I do like baseball, but it's more fun to play than to watch. And the problems in the UK are highlighted perfectly here. I just think sports in general in the UK do not get the same level of attention. I mean even when i was on my highschool rugby team, no one came to the games, no scouts were present etc etc. In America schools sellout high school games, colleges offer schollarships to play. It's a whole different system and culter. Fair play to them. I enjoy all of the America sports, but the closet we get to baseball these days is a game of rounders in the park.

I once went with a friend to the UK and we brought our baseball stuff since we love the sport. When we were practicing simple popflys people were so impressed. It was so strange.

I think you are sadly right about one of the reasons baseball does not do well in the UK. Its because of the snobbish attitude a lot of sports fans have here to anything American. Compare that for example to Australia. Where Aussies in contrast to the Brits love anything American and to do with America. Aussies love the progressive ways of America and actively try to mimic and even copy it which expains their love for American sports especially in sports in fact its opposite over there they put down anything English over there. A bit odd considering they play a lot of British sports in Australia. But Baseball over there is highly developed. Aussie fans play it to a high standard they have leagues over there that are well funded and have MLB players officials in them and they produce Australian baseball sides that are pretty good. Its in the newspapers and tv over there covers it. In fact a vast number of aussies actually think Baseball is a better sport than cricket and rather watch baseball. Ah Sacriledge. When you consider how much better generally Aussies are better than the English at Cricket. Also Aussies to their credit borrowed some of the best ideas from baseball in North America and incorporated it into their cricket. Things like Night cricket,coloured clothing, white ball, electronic scoreboards and multi angle coverage and better marketing are ideas lifted from innovative ideas that Americans did with Baseball also they used baseball coaches to improve their teams fielding abilities and analysed pitching to make aussie pace bowlers better. Clearly England teams and their fans missed a trick there over the decades because of their attitude to American sports especially baseball and it clearly benefited the Aussies to their advantage over English teams judging by the success Aussie teams have had generally over the English especially in Australia.

As s big baseball ⚾️ fan form St. Louis that’s is so sad :( I love Baseball it is my favorite sport! My favorite team is the St. Louis Cardinals.

As a British person who LOVES baseball more than any other sport, I feel very “out of place” here in the UK where everyone talks about football, rugby or cricket. No conversations about other sports. I attempted to play baseball with my family once and it soon turned into anything but baseball. Even explaining the rules is hard to get through to them. I hope it will gain interest in the future here and I’ll tell my kids about this amazing sport whether it’s getting popular or not.😊

If anybody actually thinks rugby is more Physical then American football your f******* tripping.

The argument made by the British of American Football players always makes me mad. They’re not even comparable sports. The contact in Soccer/Futbol is not even remotely as violent as American Football and that’s not debatable. American Football teams play once a week to allow time to heal and minimize injury. The tactics and game planning of the sport revolves around injuries. Fantasy Football, which is extremely popular in the US, is essentially just a game where you and your friends compete to see who can manage injuries the best.

damn ninh's at it again, so this is why the uk doesnt have much sports variety

I guess this means it will be quite awhile before the MLB is able to welcome its first player from the UK. I'll go out on a limb here and say that first UK player in the majors will be from "Stoke on Trent" (I always liked that name and I apologize for any spelling errors!). He will debut for the New York Yankees in 2031. Thanks Ninh for another thought provoking video and all the best from John in Calgary. And yes I know it's Un-Canadian of me but i actually am a larger follower of baseball than hockey! 😀

Well, Ninh Ly, from another point of view, Baseball really doesn't suck at all, they are more used to play Cricket, Rugby, Football (Soccer) and another kind of Sports, they need to take an eye of difference on the way how Baseball works and how Cricket works, that is the missing feature.

Baseball seems to fit in fine in Japan, China, & Korea. Places where Soccer (Football) & Volleyball are professional sports of note.

Why not look up your nearest team and come give it a try. I’m one of these few British baseball players and honestly as a game it’s a hell of a lot of fun. The ethos of the sportsmanship under which it plays also generally attracts decent people rather than dickheads.

Baseball has a bigger following in the UK than most people think. There are new clubs popping every season. There is also a newly formed Womens league that was due to start this season but Due to Coronavirus that was halted. I play for a team in the West Midlands Baseball League, this would have been our second season this year and our league has grown by one team already . There could be potentially another team by the start of the season season next year. So I think baseball is lot more popular than this video makes out to be fair.

I think it’s sad I can’t play the game I love just because I live in England. Throwing a pitch to nobody in my backyard yard, and playing MLB video games is the only baseball experience I can have... :(

Great video! Aside from qualifying for the WBC more recently - a welcome change, it's interesting to note that the petty squabbling continues and now a new regime of "Cover up all bad press" exists so that they can build growth on top of low integrity and selfish self serving & fund draining marketing exploits. The game will continue to suffer with the current leadership, and there'll be people that will pay a higher price than the LondonSeries ticket costs

Sorry to hear about you not being able to go to the London Series Ninh, do you have a favorite MLB team?

You should do a, " Why Major League Soccer (MLS) sucks?" Quickest video you'll ever make mate.

Ninh on the topic of American sports, you should talk about NASCAR in the UK.. From what I have heard.. it's more popular there than you might think... Also, you should go to American Speedfest at Brands Hatch next year if you can for that video.. And goddamn that organ makes me miss baseball even more now.. I'm a Marlins fan BTW (Yes, we exist)

I looked up the baseball World Cup on Wikipedia that Great Britain won the first baseball World Cup in the 1930s And I didn’t know there was another form of baseball called British baseball, I would be nice to see a video on the rules of British baseball :)

Baseball in Japan: revered slightly less then Sumo Baseball in the UK: NOTHING Japan: "commit most honorable Seppuku."

baseball was in pretty dire straights in Australia for a while but things are slowly improving, we now have a pro league with 8 teams and with 7 of them playing a purpose built ballparks although there small with the Auckland Based team the Tuatara (My Team) having North Harbor Stadium (Home of NZ Football and North Harbour Rugby Union) being converted into a Baseball facility that can still host Football and Rugby Matches if needed

We played it on a school level, and it was pretty nice, and everyone knew the basic set of rules. But I haven't come across anyone who played it as a hobby

3:40 that's a great logo dude. I love it!

Love these videos! May I suggest a video about why Rugby is not popular with other Europeans outside the six nations? One would think all the big burly northern Europeans would love it.

The closest I've ever played to baseball was Rounders, which was my favourite sport back in school, would love to try my hand at Baseball though, but I wouldn't imagine any of my friends would want to play it. My first exposure to it was actually through Star Trek DS9 believe it or not! Edit: I've actually found a local team and have been practicing with them, learned a lot but am still quite... terrible, then again I've only been going once a week for 5 weeks.

Negative reception? Hey, at least the British slaughtered Pakistan in international competition.

In the late 1800's Japan chose Baseball over Cricket for Japan's universities since the students preferred Baseball more. Baseball will always have East Asia and Latin America. Would be nice to see Baseball grow in UK, but Baseball doesn't need UK ether. Japan Korea Taiwan Colombia Panama Cuba Dominican republic arguably love baseball more than the Americans now.