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Great Britain's baseball stars

Has there ever been an English player is Major League Baseball? asked Patrick Smith

There have been very few over the years, and many of them were men who emigrated to the United States at a very early age, or were born to American parents here.

The Baseball Almanac lists 32 MLB players who were born in England, and only six of them played since the Second World War: Danny Cox (born Northampton in 1959, 278 MLB games for four teams, 1983-95); Keith Lampard (born Warrington, 1945; 62 games for Houston Astros 1969-70); Paul Marak (born 1965, Lakenheath; seven games for Atlanta Braves in 1990); Lance Painter (born Bedford, 1967; 314 games for four teams, 1993-2003); Les Rohr (born Lowestoft, 1946; six games for New York Mets, 1967-69) and Phil Stockman (born Oldham, 1980; ten games for Atlanta Braves 2006-08).

Although Stockman was born in England, he was taken to Australia at an early age, and won a silver medal for them at the 2004 Olympics.

The Almanac also lists seven MLB players who were born in Scotland (including the famous Bobby Thomson, who slugged "The Shot Heard Around the World" which got the New York Giants to the World Series in 1951), three in Wales, and 43 in Ireland.

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