In an attempt to strengthen the international baseball community, Major League Baseball has released word that it plans to send the Yankees and Red Sox in London for a two-game series during the 2019 season. According to USA Today’s report, New York and Boston will travel to London in early summer, where they will play between June 29 and 30. The two teams will face each other in London Stadium, which was built to house the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Baseball is played all over the world—from hotbeds like North America, Central America, the Caribbean, and Asia, to small professional leagues scattered across Europe. In previous seasons, MLB teams have played in Japan, Australia, Mexico, and Cuba, but this will be the first time a major league game will take place in the United Kingdom.
MLB seems to be making a big international push during the 2019 season, as the Athletics and Mariners will also be playing two games in the Tokyo Dome during the month of March. This series will be something of a rematch from their series from 2012.
As long as the game starts at a decent hour, it’s an easy thing to get excited for. Yankees fans already have to deal with those pesky West Coast trips with late-night games that don’t get started until 10 PM. Thankfully, the time difference between New York and London works in our favor. Since the Eastern Time Zone is five hours behind England, a night game in Stratford would give us afternoon Saturday and Sunday games over in America.
MLB has yet to release the 2019 regular season schedule, but let’s hope that MLB doesn’t do anything crazy. We know that jet lag can hamper performance, we’ve seen it happen a million times during long road trips and after late night flights. It would certainly be preferable to see the Yankees head to England after a series in New York, instead of, say, Texas.
What is unfortunate is that the Red Sox will be considered the home team for the two-game series. Both teams will have to deal with a completely unfamiliar location, in a stadium that isn’t really equipped for baseball, so any little advantage may help in this series. Let’s hope the Yankees will send out Luis Severino next year and he can dazzle on a different continent.
This sure does complicate anyone’s plans to travel with the team and attend every game they play on the road. Who wants to head over to London and experience Yankees baseball on a completely new continent?