Chicago Cubs Look Forward To Growing Game, Sightseeing In London

Baseball people are generally creatures of habit.

Having the same routine day after day helps players and coaches get through a 162-game schedule that stretches from the last days of March to the first days of October as well as the six-week spring training that proceeds the regular season.

So, it would stand to reason that a major-league team might not be willing to pack up during the season and fly across the Atlantic Ocean for a pair of games. That disrupts the routine.

The Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals are doing just that this week, playing a two-game series in London on Saturday and Sunday.

The Cubs, though, don’t mind the disruption. In fact, they are excited to be part of just the second set of Major League Baseball games ever to be played in England and Europe.

“We all have a great outlook on it,” veteran right-hander Kyle Hendricks said. “It’s an amazing opportunity to go over there and the other team is going to be in the same situation as us. As long as you have an even playing field, why not go have a cool experience?”

Hendricks had never traveled to Europe and neither had manager David Ross until the Cubs flew from Pittsburgh to London following their game with the Pirates on Wednesday afternoon.

The Cubs played in the Field of Dreams Game last season against the Cincinnati Reds in Dyersville, Iowa. Ross believes this trip could match or exceed the experience of playing a game in a ballpark cut out of a cornfield.

“I don’t take for granted that it’s something special to be able to do this,” Ross said. “Whether it’s disrupting the routine, maybe, but I like a little bit of uniqueness to things. Will it be harder on the body with the time change, sure? You can focus on the difficulties of it but the way I look at it we get to go to a cool venue like London, play a rivalry game in front of fans who haven’t experienced a lot of baseball.

“It’s like a free vacation from MLB and the Cubs,” he continued with a smile, using air quotes around vacation. “My 6-year-old daughter is coming with me, and she’s really excited about seeing Westminster Abbey and some of the other sights of London and so am I.”

MLB has built in back-to-back off days into the schedules of both the Cubs and Cardinals on Thursday and Friday. They will also have Monday off to reacclimate before resuming their regular schedules Tuesday in the United States.

The first MLB games in London were in 2019 when the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees faced each other at London Stadium, where this weekend’s games will also be played. Cubs center fielder Mike Tauchman was a reserve outfielder with the Yankees that season.

“It was an awesome experience,” Tauchman said. “Going back is cool.”

The Red Sox-Yankees games were slugfests with the teams combining for 10 home runs and 50 runs in the series. The Yankees won both games, 17-13 and 12-8.

MLB has adjusted the outfield dimensions for this year’s games. The center field fence is being moved back seven feet to 392 and the power alleys are being expanded by five feet to 387 while the 330-foot distances down each foul line will remain unchanged.

The among of foul territory will also be reduced because of a different seating configuration.

Nevertheless, Tauchman believes the conditions could be ripe for a lot of offense this weekend.

“In 2019, it was a combination of it being incredibly hot in the London and the stadium being where they ran the Olympic track events in 2012 so there was no wind,” Tauchman said. “There was a greenhouse effect, it was super dry in there and pitchers were having a hard time spinning the ball. So, guys were getting a lot of good pitches to hit.”

This year’s series was originally scheduled for 2020 but was delayed because of the pandemic. MLB will also play in London in 2024 and 2026 and hopes to hold games in Paris in 2025. The league is also eying more possible games in Europe in countries such as Germany, The Netherlands and Italy.

“Anything we can do to bring the game to as many kids and people in general around the world is amazing,” Hendricks said. “I love this game so much and I think I can speak for a lot of (other MLB players) that we want to expand the game as far as we can and do so with a lot of positivity and excitement.”