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We get quite a lot over coverage of baseball over here these days, but it's hard for a 'new' sport to build up a following in a country where very few play it. Look at soccer in the US - millions of kids play it, there are dozens of excellent college teams but the league there has still struggled for a decade in a market that is arguably sports saturated.

If there are games being played in Britain I haven't heard of them. Went to a Red Sox / Mets game back in '94 but nothing since. Seems like US franchises are targeting Europe in a big way though. We had an NFL game here in September and and NHL game as well (no Wings or Lie-downs though so I didn't bother going).

I saw the NFL game....media made quite the big deal about it here. My guess is that baseball takes better hold in countries that don't really have a "native" game. You folks have cricket and soccer which are really hits over there, so there probably isn't too much interest in baseball.
Now curling...that is of great interest! (I'm also 1/4 Scottish)

laprimamirala wrote:

(I'm also 1/4 Scottish)

Small world - I'm 1/8 Scottish/Irish (My maternal grandfather is McKee = McKees info says Scotland was colonized and populated by Irish) and migrations
to North America took place in many areas i.e. Pennsylvania, South
Carolina, New Jersey, Ontario, Canada-and other places.)

We need to do a "Whatever" - geneology section, it could be interesting.

Let's do it!!!!

tigerbob wrote:

Coming back to England from the US stinks at present because of the exchange rate. £1 = $2. Very very expensive.

It was only 1.81 : 1 when I was there back in 2005. The thing that threw me off were those Scottish banknotes (or something like that). I had to take them to a bank and exchange them for other ones. It seemed weird that Scotland and England used different, yet identical currency. I was never in Scotland either so I have no clue how I got them. It must have been when I was in Belfast.

Pre-Euro days!

I'm just glad the UK had decimalisation long before I went.


I mean, I think it was something like 12 pence is a schilling and 20 schilling is a pound. To me that's 240 cents in a dollar

I probably was ripped off aplenty because I wasn't even counting my change when I bought something.

catbox_9 wrote:

I'm just glad the UK had decimalisation long before I went.


I mean, I think it was something like 12 pence is a schilling and 20 schilling is a pound. To me that's 240 cents in a dollar

Oh, man that takes me back. I was 6 when we went decimal and my parents owned a pub at the time so we had the hassle of switching it all over in the cash register.

You are absolutely right about it being confusing to those of us who didn't deal with it day to day.

You also had sixpences (which were worth half a shilling and were also known as "Tanners"), threepenny bits (4 to a shilling) and farthings (four farthings to one penny). Then there were Crowns (each worth 5 shillings), Half Crowns (each worth two shillings and sixpence, known as "two and six" and written as 2s 6d or 2/6). Bizarrely, the half crown was also known as a half dollar! Then you had guineas which were worth 21 shillings.

The bank notes were huge! Like a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11. You had to fold them up to get them in you wallet!

All those notes looked cool, though. Love all the different inks.

They were so neat.

tigerbob wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

I'm just glad the UK had decimalisation long before I went.


I mean, I think it was something like 12 pence is a schilling and 20 schilling is a pound. To me that's 240 cents in a dollar

Oh, man that takes me back. I was 6 when we went decimal and my parents owned a pub at the time so we had the hassle of switching it all over in the cash register.

You are absolutely right about it being confusing to those of us who didn't deal with it day to day.

You also had sixpences (which were worth half a shilling and were also known as "Tanners"), threepenny bits (4 to a shilling) and farthings (four farthings to one penny). Then there were Crowns (each worth 5 shillings), Half Crowns (each worth two shillings and sixpence, known as "two and six" and written as 2s 6d or 2/6). Bizarrely, the half crown was also known as a half dollar! Then you had guineas which were worth 21 shillings.

The bank notes were huge! Like a sheet of 8 1/2 x 11. You had to fold them up to get them in you wallet!

LOL! No wonder English people are smarter than Americans. I read that like 8 times (and the corresponding wikipedia page) and it still makes little sense. Japan has the best setup - they have Yen and that's it. No pennies, no nothing.

Speaking of English money, why are your 1 pound coins so tiny? Looking at them you'd think they're worthless and just throw them away - they're worth $2 each! Then you have those 2 pound coins which are huge.

You don't have any high denomination bank notes either I noticed. The US and England are probably the only countries out there that don't have a note worth more than the equivalent of US$100.

They make a Euro note worth 500 Euro. I was in Spain and a guy on a bus was fanning himself with several. He must have been a drug dealer

The £1 coin is small in diameter but thicker than lower denominations. Basically I have no idea why. As to the £50 being the biggest we have, I guess it's because £50 is worth something like $6000, oh hang on, $6,025. No, wait, now $6050!

Seriously, I don't know. I guess we are all paupers and the more notes we need to carry the richer we feel. The British banking system never recovered from when y'all threw all that tea in the harbor in Boston.

I remember Italy before the Euro. You go into a cafe, order a latte and they'd ask you for 80,000 lira or something. You'd panic about the high prices in Italy, before you realised that the coffee was actually 40 pence.

Yeah, it is quite a bit thicker. The US used to have $500, $1000 (and some higher valued ones that were never very common) but they are no longer in circulation and are worth several times face value. They are no longer legal tender (which is interesting because all US COINS ever minted are still technically useable) although banks will exchange them for face value and destroy them.

Why do the different territories (or whatever they're called) have their own notes? They wouldn't let me use a Scottish banknote in England and made me exchange it for an English one. Can you use Scottish bank notes in N. Ireland because that's where I must have gotten it?

Italy was fun! Felt rich there! Last time I was there was 1989. I was in Assisi before the big earthquake.

I didn't make it to Italy when I went to Europe

I went to Dublin, Waterford, Belfast, London, Paris, Madrid, and Lisbon.

I also saw neighboring towns in many of those places. In London for example we went to Bath, Stonehenge, etc. They even let us touch the stones at Stonehenge - supposedly that isn't allowed anymore unless you have a special tour.

I was at Stonehenge as well...rode a bike there from Salisbury...not for the faint of heart, especially that last final hill right before you reach it. Ugh! that was hard! But it was cool. You were lucky to touch the stones.

catbox_9 wrote:

Why do the different territories (or whatever they're called) have their own notes? They wouldn't let me use a Scottish banknote in England and made me exchange it for an English one. Can you use Scottish bank notes in N. Ireland because that's where I must have gotten it?

This is one of those endless debates that not even the English and Scots know the answer to and can't be bothered to find out. My understanding is that Scottish notes are legal tender in England, but that since most English people are so unfamiliar with them there is a reluctance to accept them due to the possibility that they may be counterfeit.

No idea whatsoever about Northern Ireland, though I would have thought so since it is part of the United Kingdom.

Not sure if the same would apply in Eire. Actually I think they use the Euro in Eire.

tigerbob wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

Why do the different territories (or whatever they're called) have their own notes? They wouldn't let me use a Scottish banknote in England and made me exchange it for an English one. Can you use Scottish bank notes in N. Ireland because that's where I must have gotten it?

This is one of those endless debates that not even the English and Scots know the answer to and can't be bothered to find out. My understanding is that Scottish notes are legal tender in England, but that since most English people are so unfamiliar with them there is a reluctance to accept them due to the possibility that they may be counterfeit.

No idea whatsoever about Northern Ireland, though I would have thought so since it is part of the United Kingdom.

Not sure if the same would apply in Eire. Actually I think they use the Euro in Eire.

Most of the banknotes I got in N. Ireland were identical to the English ones. I can't remember if they have their own banknotes and I'm too lazy to check at the moment.

Eire (Ireland) does indeed use the Euro - it replaced the Irish Pound (Punt) which, like the British Pound, was once incredibly confusing using Schilling, Pence, etc.

As for Ireland/N. Ireland, what to most English people think about those 6 counties? From what I understand, your Queen is fond of the area and reluctant to grant them independence. The Irish seem to want to embrace unification of Ireland (although a large group of Irish strongly oppose this) and I don't think N. Ireland has any idea what they want. This story is never covered in the U.S. so I could be way off.

I'm ready to go back!!

catbox_9 wrote:

As for Ireland/N. Ireland, what to most English people think about those 6 counties? From what I understand, your Queen is fond of the area and reluctant to grant them independence. The Irish seem to want to embrace unification of Ireland (although a large group of Irish strongly oppose this) and I don't think N. Ireland has any idea what they want. This story is never covered in the U.S. so I could be way off.

I can only speak for myself, and I think that the people in N.I. should have a right to self determination. It appears from research I remember seeing that most people in Northern Ireland want to remain part of the United Kingdom. A relatively small minority don't, and a miniscule minority are prepared to blow people up to get their way in spite of what the majority think.

The Queen basically has no say. As to those from the Republic of Ireland (Eire) I believe a slight majority want a unified Ireland. It's a tough one, and somebody's going to end up unhappy, though hopefully not so unhappy that they go out and kill people.

This is all from memory so I could be way off base as well.

tigerbob wrote:

catbox_9 wrote:

As for Ireland/N. Ireland, what to most English people think about those 6 counties? From what I understand, your Queen is fond of the area and reluctant to grant them independence. The Irish seem to want to embrace unification of Ireland (although a large group of Irish strongly oppose this) and I don't think N. Ireland has any idea what they want. This story is never covered in the U.S. so I could be way off.

I can only speak for myself, and I think that the people in N.I. should have a right to self determination. It appears from research I remember seeing that most people in Northern Ireland want to remain part of the United Kingdom. A relatively small minority don't, and a miniscule minority are prepared to blow people up to get their way in spite of what the majority think.

The Queen basically has no say. As to those from the Republic of Ireland (Eire) I believe a slight majority want a unified Ireland. It's a tough one, and somebody's going to end up unhappy, though hopefully not so unhappy that they go out and kill people.

This is all from memory so I could be way off base as well.

That's what I thought it was like. The impression my dad has (who claims to follow it more than me) is that Tony Blair (is he still your Prime Minister?) would allow N. Ireland to join Ireland if they so chose but is somewhat reluctant because the Queen wants it to remain part of the UK.

For what it's worth, Belfast is a great city. People thought I was crazy for going there, but I felt very safe the whole time I was there.

Gordon Brown is now the PM. Mr. Blair is on to higher pursuits in intenational diplomacy...
Did you get to any other part of Ireland, catbox?

laprimamirala wrote:

Gordon Brown is now the PM. Mr. Blair is on to higher pursuits in intenational diplomacy...
Did you get to any other part of Ireland, catbox?

Shows how much I pay attention to English politics

I went to Dublin and Waterford as well as Belfast. I also went to some neighboring towns in Dublin (Dun Laoghrie [sp?], Maldahide [or something - there's a castle there]) and Belfast (The town where they make Bushmills, the Giants Causway, and that Karick-a-Reide [sp not even close] rope bridge's town).

Blair stepped down around May last year. New PM is Gordon Brown.

Don't know where your Dad gets his info but if so it's news to me. I'm not saying the Queen wouldn't be disappointed (I have no idea how she would feel about it), but she is in no position to influence the decision in any way, shape or form. The only political power she has is to withold the 'Royal Assent'. Every new law has to be signed by HM the Q (this is called 'Royal Assent') and the only reason she might ever not grant it is if a government tried to do something unconstitutional such as increasing the number of years between elections fron 5 years to, say, 15.

The majority of people in Northern Ireland wouldn't choose a united Ireland anyway, at least not the way it currently stands.

tigerbob wrote:

Blair stepped down around May last year. New PM is Gordon Brown.

Don't know where your Dad gets his info but if so it's news to me. I'm not saying the Queen wouldn't be disappointed (I have no idea how she would feel about it), but she is in no position to influence the decision in any way, shape or form. The only political power she has is to withold the 'Royal Assent'. Every new law has to be signed by HM the Q (this is called 'Royal Assent') and the only reason she might ever not grant it is if a government tried to do something unconstitutional such as increasing the number of years between elections fron 5 years to, say, 15.

The majority of people in Northern Ireland wouldn't choose a united Ireland anyway, at least not the way it currently stands.

I don't know where he gets his info either but his source is probably not very reputable. Someone probably made that up and told it to him so he believed it. From what little I've read I've heard nothing of the sort.

So Blair stepped down? I used to know a lot more about world politics when I was taking political science my senior year in high school. At least he stepped down after I finished the class.

I sort of get how that monarchy works. It took me like the first 17 years of my life how that works and why there is no King of England. I also sort of understand how the succession works.

Royal family history is verrry fascinating! It was pretty eventful even in the 20th century.
very neat, catbox. That was my only regret that I didn't stay longer in England so I could get to Ireland and Scotland.

We didn't make it to Whales or Scotland. The only England we saw was tons of London (like 4 or 5 days there) - everything we wanted to see other than a tour of the Tower of London which was ridiculously expensive. My favorite thing there was that tower (I forget what it's called ) that commemorates the fire way back when. It's a whole bunch of stairs and then a super tiny cage at the top and you could see most of London. The best part was the price - it was only a pound!

London in 1981 was a pretty happy place. The Royal Wedding was about to happen in 1.5 months...bought lots of souvenirs! We just went to Westminster, St. Paul's, walked down next to the Thames, and rode the tube a lot! We were pretty poor too.

I bought very few souvenirs during my month in Europe - just tons of pictures. We didn't go inside the fancy English churches. The outside was amazing and I had previously been inside of St. Patrick's Cathedral and St. James Cathedral (both in Dublin and both Protestant despite the fact 90% of Dublineans are Catholic) so that was enough for me. I took the buses more than the tube.

Speaking of subways, the ones in Spain and Portugal are top-notch.