LORD'S CRICKET GROUND TO HOST MLB CHALLENGE SERIES
Baseball is coming back to England in grand fashion. The MLB Challenge Series will take place in England, as the famed cricket oval -
Lord's - will be the host of the 2001 MLB Challenge Series between the winner of the Guinness Cup Series of the Continental League and the bottom finisher in the MLB standings.
Here are a few Q&A's about the MLB Challenge Series @ Lord's in 2001.
Q: Are you concerned that the MLB Challenge Series will be viewed as an inferior product?
"Actually, part of the reason that London actually lobbied for this event when we were considering making this event as part of our international outreach, is because English fans understand what promotion and relegation is all about. American fans are still trying to understand how their team can get demoted out of the majors. It's a huge barrier for the casual fan and yet, it's been a huge success for MLB to do this setup going into the 2nd year. We think going overseas is going to be a huge hit."
Q: Would MLB ever consider a neutral site World Series
No. It's not something that baseball could do. We believe that home-field advantage and being able to play in front of one's fans after a long season is critical. In this particular instance, we thought it wasn't as much of a factor. Some home fans are not as likely to come out to a game to watch their team possibly lose to a 'lesser' team and the fans from the city that's just won the Guinness Cup should be able to bask in the glory of that accomplishment. We thought subjecting them to the home defeat might be a bit unfair.
Plus, the setup of two doubleheaders for the challenge series with a decisive fifth game was a big complaint among the players on both sides after last year.
Q: Will the game be in London every year? Or will it rotate?
We liked the fact that in London, that we could schedule the games that would still allow everyone to watch and the games wouldn't have to be shown as really odd times. But that being said, games have been played in Japan before and people understand that it's just how it is. Getting TV time at 3 or 4 in the morning isn't exactly that difficult either, so it kinda helps us to some degree. So could we see the game being played somewhere else down the road? I'd say yes. But we're just focused on London in 2001 right now.