PONY Baseball and The British Baseball Federation (BBF), the National Governing Body of Baseball, announce a re-established partnership. Starting with the BBF Youth Baseball National Championships (YNBC's), which are scheduled for this Saturday and Sunday, the winners (in respective age groups) will then automatically qualify to take part in the PONY European Zone Championships in Prague, Czech Republic the subsequent year.
“On behalf of the PONY League European Zone, we are pleased that we re-established our partnership with BBF,” said Jan Bagin, PONY European Zone Director. “In past years, the teams from UK were the most often attending teams at the PONY League European Zone qualifying tournament. In the early years of the tournament, in 2002 and 2003, Upper Heyford won the qualifier and participated in the Colt World Series. We, as organizers, are sure that participation of the BBF’s best teams will increase the quality of the tournament and will help to the development of baseball within Europe.”
Beginning Saturday at Farnham Park in Buckinghamshire, the YNBC will consist of 25 teams spread across five different age divisions. To watch the event’s live stream, click here.
PONY is an international amateur baseball and softball organization for players from ages 3-23. PONY is celebrating its 67th anniversary in 2018 and can be found in more than 60 other countries. PONY was founded in Washington, Pennsylvania in 1951 with six original teams of 13 and 14 year-olds.
Today, PONY has more than 30,000 teams with more than 500,000 annual participants. The name PONY comes from the acronym, Protect Our Nation's Youth. PONY holds nine baseball and four softball World Series or international championships from mid-July to mid-August annually, culminating with its esteemed Pony League World Series at Lew Hays PONY Field in Washington.
A spokesperson for the BBF, said, strategically, we aim to understand our landscape and members needs. After that, extend our collaboration and partnerships with baseball organizations, which offer the highest quality, opportunities, and flexibility, as our members are the key to the development and sustainability of our sport. We are delighted to work with PONY and grateful for their recognition in working with us directly as the National Governing Body of Baseball. By integrating our National Championships and PONY Qualification, it offers more significant opportunities to local teams, and the importance of our Youth Baseball National Championships just got better. In the future, we plan to work with PONY on other projects.