In a sense the ancestry rules are a bit of a shame. Obviously the UK team will be a lot better than if it were made up of domestic players, but it would be great for domestic development if that was the case.

I am getting really excited for this qualifier! And less and less supremely confident that Canada will have a walk in the park. I'm really curious to see their roster.

Apparently Greg, that's the idea France is going with. They will have a few French-descended North Americans to sort of not get completely embarrassed, but they will have a ton of domestic players too, to make sure that they can develop the program. It's interesting to see how each of the European countries treat it. The Netherlands, for example, is almost always made up of people from The Netherlands (remember that Curacao, Aruba and such are part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in much the same way that England, Scotland, Wales and North Ireland are all part of the United Kingdom), I can only think of one guy who regularly makes the Dutch squads that is a Ancestry case, and even then I think it was a closer ancestry than a grandparent, it was parent or something like that.

I'm assuming the Czechs are mostly domestic as well?

Speaking of which, apparently Great Britain just beat them in the European Championships today. Grudge re-match at the qualifiers!

I'm assuming the Czechs are mostly domestic as well?

Think so. Especially because it's not like there are as many Czech-Americans are there are some of the other countries.

Think so. Especially because it's not like there are as many Czech-Americans are there are some of the other countries.

Hey, my ex-girlfriend has Czech ancestry!

Although she sucks at baseball.

Leon Boyd of the Netherlands is originally from Canada, but he is a Dutch citizen, so you can't say he has no right to be on the team. His mother is Dutch and he's played there for years.

Bahamians playing for the UK is ridiculous. If somebody has a British grandparent then that makes some sense - it's the same standard used by the International Rugby Board. Rugby is like baseball in that it has about 10 countries worth a damn with a severe drop off after that and it wants to get bigger and somebody with a grandparent is eligible for citizenship in many EU countries and it implies some sort of genuine connection. But Bahamians playing for the UK is just making up the rules. Spend the money to build a couple decent fields in this country instead and stop wasting our time.

Spend the money to build a couple decent fields in this country instead and stop wasting our time.

Ground broke on a pretty big project in Milton Keynes last week. Not sure what it's going to end up looking like...is Hemel Hempstead the current national standard for ballparks?

What benefit is it to play the WBC qualifiers every few years? You already play that level of competition in the Euro championships. Better to research some family trees and recruit some New Worlders to get you into the round-robin versus professional Dominicans and Japanese. The exposure will grow the league. As long as you have a handful of domestic players and a operational domestic league, you're showing to your young athletes there's an opportunity to play the sport and possibly represent their country at the world stage.

Think so. Especially because it's not like there are as many Czech-Americans are there are some of the other countries.

Hey, my ex-girlfriend has Czech ancestry!

Although she sucks at baseball.

I have Czech ancestry. But I suck at baseball.

But I do have a friend who's also of Czech ancestry and she's a pretty softball player.