Major League Baseball returns to the UK this weekend for a third time in six years, and West Ham United’s London Stadium has been transformed into a baseball field for the third time.
This year, the stadium that was the main home of the 2012 Summer Olympics will host the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies for games on Saturday and Sunday, with West Ham’s Lucas Paqueta and Jarrod Bowen making way for the Phillies’ Bryce Harper and the Mets’ Pete Alonso, plus more of MLB’s top talent.
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But hang on, isn’t a baseball field a different shape to a football pitch? How do they make that work?
Allow The Athletic to explain — or rather, ask Murray Cook, an expert in that area, to explain…
How long did it take?
“From start to finish, it took 18 days to build this,” says Cook, MLB’s field consultant.
“This” is the third time he has helped prepare the London Stadium for the London Series. The other two series at the stadium were the New York Yankees versus the Boston Red Sox in 2019 and the St Louis Cardinals versus the Chicago Cubs last summer — the latter was meant to take place in 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It took us 21 days in 2019 and 18 last year,” says Cook. “We never try and set a record but this was a big team effort.”
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— MLB Europe (@MLBEurope) June 5, 2024
Why the London Stadium?
“We started this process back in 2014, in terms of looking at how we could do it in London,” says Cook. “Over the years, we continued to look and figured out by 2019 we had a shot at making it work.
“We created a team, mostly with help from the UK and Europe; people like myself from the U.S. help create a strategy, although it was in a very short window. We looked at different places and felt the London Stadium was the right fit.”
It took so long for MLB to work out whether it could stage regular-season games in European football or rugby stadiums because of the difficulty of converting the rectangular pitches used for those sports into a playable triangular baseball field. Most football/rugby pitches just didn’t have enough width to fit all the necessary components.
The London Stadium, however, had the benefit of having been originally designed with extra space to accommodate track and field events. After making changes to the seating layout, Cook was able to make it fit.
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So how do they do it?
Then came the hardest part: building the field itself. After West Ham’s final home match of the season on May 11, the grass was stripped, then it’s a case of laying down everything a baseball game will need. “There’s 345 tons of infield clay,” says Cook. “Then you have to sort out the turf, the netting, padding, dugouts, but what is great about it is most of the stuff we used last year, we were able to use this year.”
The turf had been tested, ensuring an appropriate bounce and checking how the spikes on the players’ footwear fit into it, as well as looking at drainage. “We want to make sure the field is safe, which it has been previously. We want it to be as consistent, reliable and enjoyable as possible for the players like a baseball field.”
He adds: “For us, the key part of the job is using the drag to groom the clay. There are a lot of similarities between this and the maintenance of a cricket pitch. That is our cricket ‘wicket’ area, because 70 percent of a baseball game is played in that area. It rains a lot here, so dealing with the weather can be challenging due to the clay. We sometimes have to put out covers to protect it.”
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What can the MLB novice expect?
The Mets and the Phillies is one of Major League Baseball’s biggest rivalries — the Battle of the Broads — so expect some fan rivalry.
Meanwhile, a connection with British football comes via Rob McElhenney, famous for “It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia” as well as for co-owning League One side Wrexham, who are stars of the Emmy-winning documentary series Welcome To Wrexham. McElhenney is a hardcore Phillies fan, and will be throwing the ceremonial first pitch on Sunday. Fellow actor Matthew Broderick is a Mets fan and will do the honors on Saturday.
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Alonso is one of the key players for the Mets, while Phillies hitter Harper is widely considered one of the best baseball players in the world, so spectators are seeing the sport’s top talents. The Phillies had a team event on Thursday night at the Tower of London. Their manager Rob Thomson and his coaches visited the Philly-themed bar Passyunk Avenue in London’s Waterloo district, helping promote the sport on this side of the Atlantic.
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“We have a lot of Philly fans here, but it was great walking around (London’s Borough) Market and not being recognised,” said Harper. “Football, I don’t want to say ‘soccer,’ what an incredible sport, and my wife grew up playing it. I enjoy watching the Premier League and I love Jack Grealish’s hair. He has a really good mop.
“In terms of the popularity of the game, it’s great being here in London. But as much as we want to put baseball in people’s faces, fans are going to have to want to watch us play.
“We’re aware there’s other sports, like NFL and basketball, that people enjoy more than baseball. As baseball grows, the more we go into different countries, hopefully it will continue to grow.”
Finally, after converting West Ham’s pitch, is Cook converted to the team?
“Through doing this, I’ve been to a few West Ham games and I have a soft spot for the team,” says Cook.
But mostly it’s about professional pride. “I’ll watch a game and think, ‘We converted that pitch.’ The most satisfying part of the job is seeing the players happy with the surface and watching the fans be all excited and embracing the sport. That’s what makes it special to be involved in all of this.”
He adds: “It’s a great venue, so you look at what you can do to enhance the experience for baseball fans. We clean it off for James Williams (West Ham’s head groundsman) and the boys (on his staff), and then they take it from there and get it ready for the Foo Fighters concert in the next few weeks.”
(Top photo: Alex Morton/MLB Europe via Getty Images)