Baseball: Bid to revive sport that was once popular in south-east Wales

For much of the 20th Century, baseball was one of the most popular summer sports played in south-east Wales.

But its dramatic decline has seen the sport almost vanish, aside from the women's teams affiliated to the Welsh Ladies' Baseball Union.

Now there is a push to bring baseball back.

In the early 1920s, there were more than 60 baseball clubs in south Wales, with in excess of 1,400 registered players.

The Wales-England international - first held in 1908 - became an annual event after World War One, routinely drawing more than 10,000 spectators.

In the 1970s, major club matches and internationals were televised, but in the 2000s the game started to wane and in 2017 the men's league failed to complete the season and disbanded, 125 years after the Welsh Baseball Union (WBU) was formed.

The sport that for a few months of the year was a regular sight in the public parks of Cardiff and Newport was left with only women's teams still playing competitive matches.

But over the last 18 months, a small group of devoted people have begun trying to resurrect the men's game in Wales.

In the summer of 2021, the men's league was re-started and the Welsh Cup final was held for the first time in five years, with 14 former Wales internationals appearing.

Following the success of last year's men's league, members of the WBU decided to attempt to restore baseball in secondary schools with the hope of generating a production line of male and female players to take the adult game forward.

Co-ordinated by Ryan Crimmins - the head of physical education at Cardiff's Mary Immaculate High School - almost 40 teachers from schools across Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan attended a professional development session at the start of the 2022 summer term.

They were instructed in the basics of the game by the WBU.

"There wasn't much baseball out there, so it was great to see so many teaching staff who were so keen to learn the rules and get some coaching tips and techniques for them to take back to their schools and teach it," Crimmins said.

The following weeks saw the WBU visiting schools to provide supplementary coaching for youngsters.

The work recently culminated in a baseball festival held at Heath Park, Cardiff. Over four days, 27 teams - including more than 400 pupils - participated.

Crimmins added: "Covid obviously has had a big impact along with the death of the youth league, but for a group of children who haven't played baseball competitively for so long, the talent has been great."

The success of the youth festival has prompted the WBU to begin setting up a youth league for under-14 and under-16 teams to begin in 2023.

"To get the youth playing again will be the lifeline of baseball," Jones said.

Crimmins says schools "can only do so much".

"This is where now we're hoping a lot of our pupils will go and play regular club baseball outside school," he added.

The idea is that the youth league will be a stepping stone to senior baseball.

Indeed, some of the teenagers who played this summer have already progressed into the adult game.

So has the WBU identified talented players for the future?

"Absolutely," Pelleymounter said. "Some great back-stops, the way they throw the ball, the way they catch - no fear at all."

Jones has also been impressed by the "raw talent" on display.

"Some of these children are fantastic, there's so much natural ability," he said.

It was evident at Heath Park that the pupils participating were enjoying themselves.

Jones added: "You can hear the laughter and the encouragement. It's just a great experience for them. We're so happy to be here and to be able to do this with them."

Pelleymounter says schools can be "the lifeline of our game".

"These baseball festivals will keep the women's and the men's league alive for years," he said.

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