Yankees, Red Sox to take great rivalry to London
LONDON: The Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, two of baseball’s storied franchises, will take one of sport’s greatest rivalries to Europe when they play two regularseason games at the London Stadium next year, Major League Baseball said yesterday.
Boston will play as the home team in the first MLB games to be staged in Europe, on June 29 30, 2019, as the two teams meet for the first time outside either Boston or New York, at the stadium that hosted the 2012 Olympic
Games.
MLB also confirmed it is committed to playing in
London in
2020 as it tries to ‘‘establish a longterm footprint in the city’’.
Baseball is following in the footsteps of American football, which has regularly held NFL games in London since 2007, and basketball — NBA matches have become a regular fixture in the capital since 2011.
‘‘Because this is our first foray into Europe, it’s really important that we make as big a splash as possible,’’ MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told a news conference in London.
‘‘In order to do that, we’re going to bring you one of the best rivalries in baseball, maybe one of the best rivalries in all of sport — the Red Sox and the Yankees.’’
Manfred said the historic fixtures would take place in a stadium specially reconfigured to stage baseball in front of 55,000 fans.
The news represents a coup for the mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who has been pushing to make his city the ‘‘capital of world sport.’’
His enthusiasm to bring bigtime baseball to the capital even resulted in his throwing out the ceremonial first pitch at a game between the New York Mets and Minnesota Twins two years ago.
‘‘We hope this series will be the beginning of a relationship with London that will persist,’’ Manfred said, explaining that an agreement was in place for baseball to also return to London for two matches in 2020 with teams yet to be announced.
Boston Red Sox Principal Owner John W. Henry, who also owns English Premier League football club Liverpool, said: ‘‘There were significant challenges that had to be overcome. This series will surely be the most significant international event to date for major league ball’’.
Britain will now join other international venues to have hosted regularseason games, along with Mexico, Japan, Puerto Rico and Australia.
‘‘All the hard work has paid off,’’ Khan said, describing it as an ‘‘historic’’ partnership.
A test of the appetite for the London venture is that the two fixtures will clash with key World Cup cricket matches. Australia and New Zealand play a daynighter at Lord’s, also in London, on June 29, before England meets India at Edgbaston in Birmingham the following day.