Baseball is known as America’s National Pastime - but if Major League Baseball has their say, it could soon become a British or even global game as it gears up for Home Run Derby X.
The event, held at Crystal Palace Park in London on July 9, will mark an exciting new format of baseball. Inspired by MLB All-Star Home Run Derby that captivates fans of the sport around the world on an annual basis, HRDX is a team-based competition that will see four iconic franchises in action as the Boston Red Sox, Chicago Cubs, Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees take their teams on a global tour stopping at London, Seoul and Mexico City in 2022.
Each team will be made up from an eclectic, exciting and frankly enthralling mix of iconic superstars, rookies, wild cards and MLB legends, including Adrian Gonzalez, Jonny Gomes, Geovany Soto and Nick Swisher. Spencer Owen, the YouTuber who surged to fame as the founder and CEO of semi-professional football club Hashtag United, is ready to emulate his past dreams of becoming a professional sportsperson when he steps up at bat.
“It came up as an opportunity. I haven’t played any professional sport and while I’ve done some cool football stuff on YouTube, I’ve never ultimately been paid to play any sport,” Owen exclusively told The Mirror . “I knew I was going to come up against very talented other wild cards in this event. I’m taking on Olympic athletes - guys that won medals!
“They’re coming into it without any baseball experience, so can I compete with professional sportspeople? I like the challenge. It’s completely new: I had never held a baseball bat before. I’ve had unbelievable training from the best coaches out in America, and we will go around the world to Mexico, South Korea and London to try and hit baseballs. Why wouldn’t I do it?”
Why wouldn’t Owen do it? Well, the 33-year-old has built a dedicated fanbase with 649,600 followers on Twitter and many will be ready to ridicule the presenter at first opportunity.
Regardless, Owen - who found out he should be wearing glasses when he takes part in order to see pitches better - hopes to grow the sport in the United Kingdom as his main priority for taking part in the HRDX. However, he also wants to impress his followers who perhaps do not consider him a baseball player.
“We’re trying to make baseball bigger over here. It’s already worked on me,” Owen added. “I think what we’ve got to do in this country with things like this is get young people playing and get the right facilities.
“For example, I’ve been looking for the right facilities here to do my training and we’re mostly using cricket nets which is OK and can work - but there’s only a couple of baseball fields in my county of Essex. If you want kids to pick this up, even as fans, you have to play.
“If I go up there to swing and miss 25 balls, it’s going to do no one any favours. I’m going to look like an idiot. It’ll make baseball look really hard and wouldn’t be a good advert for the sport, so I need to go and hit some home runs. I’d be letting my audience down, although they probably don’t expect it from me!”
Owen - who admitted he has never followed a team but has been to Wrigley Field twice so has assumed Chicago Cubs fandom - spoke highly of the other Wild Cards and ex pros, including Cubs legend Soto, who the YouTuber has backed to hit 20 home runs from the 25 balls afforded to him. Owen spoke of how difficult actually facing a fastball is compared to how it may look on television, adding: “When you actually pick up a bat and try and hit a moving ball, you realise it's quite tough. The baseball pros will tell you it’s the hardest thing in sports.”
MLB HRDX is unlike a typical baseball game as it is made up of a set of fast-paced games set to take place on a reduced baseball field. The rules are altered to allow for additional scoring opportunities such as hitting target strikes, hot streak balls and stealing home runs.
Owen has received plenty of tips and pointers to improve his swing game ahead of MLB HRDX. Asked what is the best piece of advice he has received so far, Owen reiterated how different baseball is to common British sports.
“Even the stance when you first stand over the plate at the beginning is so alien,” Owen declared. “You can’t compare it to golf or cricket, it’s different. It took a while to get into the swing of things, and the best tip I got was from Dave Jauss - a World Series winner who won the Home Run Derby last year as a pitcher. He told me to relax at the plate and stop being so stiff, and he also taught me about my dominant eye and how important that is.
“Timing is the biggest thing. You can spend all day in the gym but if you hit the ball with the right part of the bat, it’s going to fly. I could go on all day about the little tidbits they’ve taught me, and this experience is a privilege I’m keen not to waste.”
MLB has joined the likes of the NBA and NFL in growing their presence in the UK, with the Red Sox and Yankees facing off against one another in 2019 which the New York franchise won 17-13 and 12-8. The best way to grow a fanbase is to show fans the spectacle that is scoring a home run - and the HRDX will ensure fans in attendance witness plenty of the sensational strikes.
Owen compared hitting a home run to scoring a goal in football as well as another somewhat celebrated mechanism of scoring in British pop culture as he referenced how Harry Potter won plenty of quidditch matches by snatching the golden snitch.
“Even with a goal, there’s a lot of moving parts; someone’s probably made a good pass or there might be a mistake from the other team defensively,” Owen added. “In baseball, it’s an individual sport masquerading as a team sport - you’re up there on the play by yourself, whether you’re a pitcher or batter.
“A home run looks good and sounds good when you connect with it, and it’s a little bit like the golden snitch in quidditch. I know I can do it and hit the home run, but it won’t happen every time.”
Owen believes the day out on July 9 at Crystal Palace Park can help inspire a generation of British baseball fans, while also converting others who may not enjoy the game through the food, merchandise and other forms of entertainment on offer. Going forwards, the idea of a baseball team named Hashtag Yellow Sox was naturally put to Owen - and he was intrigued by the idea.
“I’d be stupid if I come to the end of this experience and I don’t use this baseball training for something,” Owen said with a mischievous smile etched across his face. “Will we see Hashtag Yellow Sox? Maybe - the name alone is exciting. It would be a good legacy for this project.”
To find out more, check out mlb.com/HomeRunDerbyX . You can follow the full Home Run Derby X Tour at @mlb and @MLBEurope. MLB will be documenting the progress of the teams, the Wild Card’s training journey, and all the live and behind-the-scenes action from each event. #HomeRunDerbyX @MLBEurope
