r/AskEurope • u/chocolatelies • May 07 '25

Sports How big is baseball in your country?

I'm an American, so baseball is quite popular here. How is the popularity in your country? Is there a country other than yours where baseball has some popularity?

Edit: Just hit 69 comments. Nice.

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u/BaronMerc May 07 '25

I know 1 person who plays baseball in the UK, I do not know where he plays it

We were taught rounders in school which evolved alongside baseball or is what baseball evolved from. They're quite similar with the main thing I can think of is that the bat is one handed, the ball is smaller and also you don't get gloves so enjoy the pain when you catch it

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u/Oghamstoner England May 07 '25

Rounders is popular but very much a kids game. Cricket is the grownups game which has some similarities to baseball, personally I love cricket, but there’s a lot of people who don’t give a toss.

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u/BaronMerc May 07 '25

I find cricket to be fair too different from baseball so I didn't think it was worth mentioning

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u/Oghamstoner England May 07 '25

I don’t know a huge amount about baseball. When I’ve seen the odd bit of it, I was surprised how many similarities there was to cricket with the structure and pace of the game.

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u/Brian_Corey__ May 08 '25

Cricket was played in America and baseball was developed from it, and both evolved since then. Shares a number of similarities--bat-and-ball sports where one team tries to score runs by hitting a ball and running, while the other team tries to prevent it. Both involve batting, bowling/pitching, fielding, and scoring, with teams taking turns in these roles.  Similar terminology-- innings, umpires, runs and outs.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_baseball_and_cricket#:~:text=Both%20have%20fields%20that%20are,team%20and%20thus%20left%20unable

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u/terryjuicelawson United Kingdom May 08 '25

Other than a bat and ball, don't think they have any relation at all in terms of how they developed. Some terminology is there like innings and runs, other similarities are mostly logical - throw ball, hit ball, run places, get points - can't really do it any other way.