By Hayley Mooney
This year should mark the fourth season in which Caerau Nomads baseball team intends to conquer the woman’s baseball league. However, it seems that Coronavirus is the biggest competitor the team will face.
Baseball was once a very popular sport in Wales, especially in Cardiff and Newport but over the last decade the decline of baseball teams has become evident.
Unfortunately, the Men’s Baseball Union diminished over the last ten years, resulting in no leagues or teams left to play the summer sport.
Therefore, the female teams are now the only chance that baseball has at surviving.
Three years ago, Michael Dacey who once played for Grange Catholics, decided to create a woman’s baseball team named ‘Caerau Nomads’.
Following Caerau Nomad’s two season success they were keen to carry on achieving greatness until Coronavirus stopped them.
Coronavirus meant that the Welsh Baseball Union had to suspend the sport for the summer with the hopes they could resume this coming summer.
Eleanor Dacey, Caerau Nomads captain, stated “We will struggle to keep the sport alive if we have another season cancelled”. Eleanor and Michael Dacey have both had meetings with the Welsh Baseball Union to discuss whether or not baseball will be allowed to go ahead this summer and still the union are unsure on the situation.
With Caerau Nomads success, naturally, they attracted lots of new teammates. Their team ranged from teenagers to middle-aged women. Eleanor is worried that she will not be able to gather a team together to play if the season can go ahead, she stated, “because we weren’t allowed to play last summer, baseball is not fresh in the memory for everyone and we will be forgotten about”.
Both Michael and Eleanor are desperate to keep the sport alive and have big plans to keep Caerau Nomads one of the best teams in Cardiff. “We have major plans to recruit new members, and we will keep the sport going for as long as we can” proclaimed Eleanor.