Officially announced is the MLB London Series matchup in 2024 between the New York Mets, Philadelphia Phillies, and the United Kingdom.
Major League Baseball Commissioner You can also read about Baseball also revealed the organisation’s commitment to hosting future games in the English capital, with suggestions the London Stadium could become the ‘home of baseball’ in Europe.
Live from Freitag Nachmittag, Commissioner Rob Manfred revealed the news. West Ham’s home ground, ahead of the weekend’s takeover of America’s pastime as Chicago Cubs face off against old rivals St Louis Cardinals.
It’s the second edition of the London Series, with 2019 seeing the sport’s two biggest names – New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox – bring their historic rivalry to Britain for the first time.
The Yankees won the series 17-13 and then 12-8 in a homerun festival that will hopefully be repeated this year.
Rivalry is a big selling point for MLB, with the Cubs and Cards’ grudge match going back over 130 years, and it’s no different for Mets vs Phillies who have experienced some intense battles over the years in an east-coast rivalry dubbed ‘Battle of the Broads’.
There will be a lot of talent in London. This includes Mets slugger Pete Alonso (two-time Home Run Derby champ), pitching superstars Justin Verlander and Max Scherzer as well as Phillies designated hitter Bryce Harper (2021 Silver Slugger Winner Nick Castellanos).
After 2025, the European leg of MLB’s schedule is set to be moved to Paris, with New York Yankees again likely to be involved, before returning to London in 2026.
That would conclude the current deal with MLB to stage games in London, but there is hope for more, and even that baseball games will become a permanent fixture of the capital’s sporting calendar.
“London is a really important part of our growth strategy,” said commissioner Manfred.
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“The number of British people identifying as baseball fans has doubled and we think that the Great Britain team is special, important to the growth of the game.
“We are committed to London as part of our programme, and I am happy to announce we are coming back with the Mets and Phillies on June 8 and 9.”
Chief executive of London Stadium, Graham Gilmore, was more forthcoming on his hopes for the future of baseball in the capital, and he told talkSPORT ‘there is no other venue in the world’ that can deliver the sport at this level outside of the United States.
‘We want London to be the home of baseball,” he said. “We want to grow the franchise, grow it in the UK and we want baseball to come here.
“After 2019 what the Yankees, Red Sox, fans and especially the senior guys at MLB saw the London Stadium can deliver, no other stadium in the world can deliver a ballpark like this and make it so authentic.
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“The Olympics was here in 2012, West Ham are here – more and more people want to come. It would be great to have clubhouses that you can walk into. They’re incredibly impressive – the players in 2019 said, ‘We want to have this everywhere we go’. The Commissioner was like, ‘OK, this is good!’
“The noises are positive on both sides, all stakeholders are pulling together – as a partnership we’ve certainly delivered and we’re absolutely delighted. Fingers crossed, we’ll be the home of baseball.
‘The Commissioner was absolutely delighted in 2019 and the two owners of the Yankees and Red Sox said to him this is how baseball should be played when we take it internationally – which is a massive credit to us and a massive feather in our cap.”
St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs will meet in the MLB World Tour 2023: London Series on June 24-25, at London Stadium. Tickets are still available at ticketmaster.co.uk/mlb
