Major League Baseball returns to London this weekend for the second annual London Series. Last year they sent the St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs for England's first official taste of the MLB regular season and this year they'll send another rivalry.
While it was a longtime joke that the NFL sent unpopular franchises (particularly the Jacksonville Jaguars) to London for games, MLB has such a long regular season they can afford to send high-profile rivals to other countries for a few games whenever they feel like it. Even if they aren't taking full advantage of current lineups for advertising purposes.
The Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets will play in London this year. The Phillies are 44-19 and have the best record in the National League, while the Mets are 27-35 and sit in third place in the NL East.
This will be the first time that Europe has experienced the Phillie Phanatic in person and he brought along both Mr. Met and Mrs. Met. Clearly this is an act of aggression by MLB towards the England as there are no better envoys of American culture than our sports mascots.
We sent our most trusted envoys across the pond to promote this week's #LondonSeries at @TheLondonEye! pic.twitter.com/RDnNmIw0PN
In addition to the games, MLB will take over Trafalgar Square for the weekend. Daniel Murphy and Chase Utley will be there to represent their former teams and both games will be screened live and free for fans who didn't buy tickets.
If you didn't make the trip to London this weekend, you can still catch the games on television. Here's all the pertinent information you'll need to catch the games from America.
On Saturday, June 8, the Phillies and Mets will start at 1:10 p.m. ET On Sunday June 9, the game is scheduled for a 10:10 a.m. ET first pitch for New York and Philadelphia fans.
Both games will be played at London Stadium, the home of West Ham United, who finished ninth in the Premier League this season. The stadium was first constructed for the 2012 London Olympics.
Both FOX and ESPN will broadcast a London Series game this weekend. On Saturday you can tune into Mets - Phillies on FOX at 1:10 p.m. ET. The game will serve as a lead-in to FOX's Belmont Stakes coverage and is available on cable. It can also be streamed on the Fox Sports app (login required).
On Sunday morning ESPN will show the Mets and Phillies at 10 a.m. ET. The broadcast will be sandwiched between SportsCenters on cable, and can be streamed via the ESPN app or ESPN+ with a cable login.
STEPHEN DOUGLAS
Stephen Douglas is a Senior Writer on the Breaking & Trending News Team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in journalism and media since 2008, and now casts a wide net with coverage across all sports. Stephen spent more than a decade with The Big Lead and has previously written for Uproxx and The Sporting News. He has three children, two degrees and one now unverified Twitter account.
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