The British Baseball Federation (BBF) announced at the beginning of the week that the Lakenheath Diamondbacks won’t be playing in any BBF league this year.
Their inability to form a team this year results from the continuing trend of reduced US military manpower in the UK, which is bound to have an impact on British baseball and to a lesser extent on British softball. This trend has seen the end in recent years of teams such as the Menwith Hill Patriots and Mildenhall Bulldogs, and has led to reduced US military participation in British slowpitch softball tournaments.
The Diamondbacks were the National Baseball League runner up in 2011. The BBF now needs to edit all the schedules.