London, United Kingdom.

October 17^th, 2018

After the arrival time of the flight bringing the London Underground baseball club back from the United States was leaked on Twitter, hundreds of thousands of their fans started to gather at Gatwick Airport to welcome their heroes home. The London team, the PEBA’s only European Franchise, was returning from two games against the Connecticut Nutmeggers, whom they swept in the Alliance Tournament. London now advances to the Planetary Extreme Championship for the first time in their 12-year history. Their previous two visits to the post season ended in defeat in the Divisional Series.

Unprepared security staff said they had never seen anything like it at the airport. As the number of fans grew, they had to be cordoned off to prevent clogging of the airport. Mid-afternoon the situation took a turn for the worse as news of a major delay to the chartered flight spread like wildfire. The inexperienced security staff, in an attempt to quell the growing unrest, contained the bulk of the fans in Terminal Four, which the Airport Authorities then closed to incoming air traffic.Unfortunately, they decided to allow all the concessions to remain open, which led to many thousands of the fans taking advantage of the airport bars. By late afternoon the bars had run dry and the large crowd, now mostly inebriated, took their frustrations out on the contingent of police who were attempting to retain order. Running battles were fought throughout the terminal andflares were thrown as riot police attempted to restore order. Thankfully the crowd remained contained and, to a large extent, good-humoured as the flight did not touch down until past nine at night. The players were rushed through the chanting crowd and into a fleet of waiting cars.

There were a few smiles from the players, who the previous night had beaten the Nutmeggers 11-8 to clinch a 4-0 sweep. It had been said before the game that Bernie Jacoby was on a very short leash and so it proved. The 31 year-old, who was enjoying his first season in the rotation, gave up four first inning runs and was given the hook one batter into the second. The whole bullpen was pushed into service, as London attempted to clinch their place in the Rodriguez Cup at the first time of asking. A grand slam from 2018 free agent signee Wilson Berry in the third inning gave the Underground their first lead (7-5) and, although there were some scary moments, they remainded two runs ahead going into the final inning. The home bullpen finally cracked in the top of the ninth, as doubles by Leonard Ramsey and Chris Long helped London to three insurance runs. Miguel Rosa, who is leaving the club at the end of the season, opened the bottom half of the inning and gave the home fans hope when he surrendered a one-out, two-run homer; but the reliable Luis Mora came on to close out the game and series.

London is scheduled to open the Planetary Extreme Championship away at the fellow first-timer’s Reno Zephyrs onOctober 22nd and 23^rd. Home games will follow on the 25^th, 26^th and 27^th (if required). If the teams are still locked, the series will conclude on October 29^th and 30^th in Reno.