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ST. LOUIS — The bitter and storied rivalry between the Cardinals and Cubs — one which dates to 1892 and has featured almost 2,500 head-to-head matchups — is headed to London in 2023.
The Cardinals and Cubs are slated to play a two-game sequence on June 24-25, 2023, as a part of the MLB London Sequence on the baseball-configured London Stadium, MLB and the MLB Participant Affiliation introduced on Thursday.
The 2023 MLB London Sequence marks baseball’s return to England, the place the Yankees and Pink Sox performed the primary regular-season video games in Europe in June 2019. The Cardinals and Cubs have been scheduled to play within the 2020 MLB London Sequence, however these video games have been canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Cardinals and Cubs, engaged this week in a three-game sequence at Busch Stadium, have each performed worldwide regular-season video games prior to now. St. Louis confronted Cincinnati in a two-game sequence in Monterrey, Mexico, in 2019. As for the Cubs, they opened the 2000 season towards the Mets in Tokyo they usually performed the previous Montreal Expos in San Juan in a three-game sequence in 2003.
Now, the 2 storied franchises will carry their often-contentious rivalry to England and play at London Stadium, which was initially constructed for the 2012 Summer time Olympics and seats roughly 60,000 for soccer matches. The venue, which options FieldTurf and has dimensions of 330 toes down the strains and 385 toes to middle with 16-foot partitions, proved to be particularly hitter-friendly when the Yankees beat the Pink Sox, 17-13 and 12-8, in 2019. These video games drew crowds of 59,659 and 59,059, respectively, and the stadium figures to be packed once more to observe the Cardinals and Cubs battle it out in Europe for the primary time.
“The Cardinals are excited and honored to be part of the London Sequence subsequent 12 months,” Cardinals chairman and CEO William DeWitt Jr. stated in a press release. “The Cardinals-Cubs rivalry is without doubt one of the greatest in sports activities, and it is going to be thrilling to carry it to Europe for a brand new viewers to expertise. I’ve little question that the passionate sports activities followers in London will love these video games, and we sit up for creating some new Cardinals followers abroad.”
Added Cubs government chairman Tom Ricketts: “The MLB London Sequence between the Cubs and Cardinals has been within the works for years now, and we’re thrilled to lastly be capable of carry one among baseball’s greatest rivalries to followers overseas in 2023. We hope that this sequence not solely excites and entertains, however brings extra worldwide sports activities followers to the sport all of us love.”
The 2023 London Sequence is a part of the MLB WORLD TOUR, a slate of video games that can carry MLB groups and famous person gamers to the league’s international fan base. The MLB WORLD TOUR represents MLB’s largest ever plan to play internationally, and it’ll function 24 regular-season video games and 16 exhibition video games performed all through Asia, Mexico, Latin America and Europe by the 2026 season.
