There's no sleeping in baseball! The journey of The 108.

We do this not because it is easy, but because we thought it would be easy. My favourite meme this year.

I actually didn’t expect this year to be easy - but I also didn’t expect it to be as hard as it was. I also know sleep deprivation and 100 hour weeks are not usually a good idea, but sometimes necessary, and sometimes bearable when you have a goal in mind. This has been the case for me in creative fields in years past, but this year I have seen many of these weeks as my good friend Max Trautman and I embarked on the last part of our journey to open Europe’s first indoor baseball and softball training and leisure centre in London - a side passion project outside of my animation work and Max’s work in renewable energies, which we continued to manage throughout the year. What began many years ago as a ‘Field Of Dreams’ in our head, gained more shape and traction since we committed to the project four and a half years ago, and finally opened The 108 recently in the new Brent Cross Town development in North London.

Clearly, we are not property developers. If we were we would have realised how difficult this task would be and let someone else do it, but we are dreamers, and just naive enough to think we could pull it off. Batting cages were always part of the plan, but why stop there when, to develop the game in the UK, you really need to create a space where people can train year round given our country’s climate. So a full size adult infield was added to the concept, along with throwing areas and a retail area (the latter yet to come).

With my background in branding and animation, we were able to brand and visualise the concept early on, enough to sell people on the idea and show something significantly different and unique from anything else in the UK. After many failed sites, we met with Beverley Churchill and Related Argent who saw the potential and helped shepherd it through to completion, seeing how it could impact the community and the new Brent Cross Town development. And that last part is something we’re passionate about. To develop a sport you need to do more than service its current community. You need to generate interest, fandom, casual enthusiasts to go along with the die hards. You need a place where people can discuss, debate and learn. In this country that necessitates including a place to get a drink, so we added a bar, and an American BBQ offering - why not?

In the end we’ve ended up with a venue that is truly unique. We have - to my delight - people trying baseball and softball for the very first time, such as the 3 young women who googled batting cages last weekend and booked online - with one of them learning she could switch hit - many youngsters who’ve seen Major League Baseball (MLB) games in the US while on holiday and following up on the ignited interest, young players who are booking for their birthday, finally able to share their favourite sport with friends, along with the amazing baseball and softball community and the elite players in this country having a place to play, train and further develop. We’ve even had folks from Kansas City commenting on the BBQ from our partners Smoke and Bones - a true compliment.

Of course, we got there with our naivety and a tremendous amount of hard work, but also some great support along the way coming from the aforementioned Bev Churchill, Related Argent, Barnet Council , Major League Baseball (MLB) Europe, BaseballSoftballUK and many others. When one of our earliest partners and supporters walked through the space recently, he recalled the first zoom call we had more than 3 years ago where we laid out the vision. He said when he got off the call he said to his team, ‘I think these guys are for real’. In a country where football, cricket and rugby dominate - we had to be for real, because the obstacles along the way were frequent and challenging.

There was blood and a lot of sweat, but no tears because there’s no crying in baseball! We're looking forward to our grand opening event in January. With the brand new Brent Cross West Thameslink station just opened right next door, now everyone in London has access to the best baseball and softball training and leisure facility this side of the Atlantic. Let’s play ball!