Gary Bedingfield (born 20 January 1963) is a

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historian of

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

. He is a native of

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and developed an interest in baseball as a youth. As a catcher, he played in competitive league baseball for over twenty years with the Enfield Spartans (British league champions in 1989, 1990 and 1991) and was a member of the

Great Britain national baseball team The Great Britain national baseball team is the national men's baseball team of the United Kingdom. It is governed by the British Baseball Federation, and is also a member nation of the Confederation of European Baseball. History The Britis ...

(1986, 1989 and 1991). In the 1990s he began work as a baseball historian and focused on the history of baseball during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. In 2000, he created the ''Baseball in Wartime'' website, launched the monthly ''Baseball in Wartime'' e-Newsletter in 2007. He was instrumental in arranging an announcement at every minor league ballpark on Memorial Day 2008 honoring the players who served during World War II and those who made the ultimate sacrifice. Bedingfield is also the author of numerous articles and three books about the history of baseball during the Second World War. Bedingfield currently maintains the only online biographical database dedicated to professional baseball players who were killed during World War II (there are currently 167 names in the database). In 2012, Bedingfield launched the "Baseball's Greatest Sacrifice" website dedicated to baseball players who lost their lives in military service. In 2007 Bedingfield was the keynote speaker at the ''When Baseball Went to War'' conference at the

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. After attending Enfield Grammar School, Bedingfield attained a Further Education teaching qualification at Southgate College. Bedingfield currently resides near

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where he runs Gary Bedingfield Training, a training company that delivers Train the Trainer, staff development and employment skills courses.

Works

* Baseball in World War II Europe. Charleston:

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, 1999. * (contributing author) When Baseball Went to War.

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

Triumph Books Triumph Books is a Chicago-based sports book publisher. The company is well known for its "instant books", such as its illustrated tribute to NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, which was released 10 days after his death in a crash in the 2001 Daytona ...

, 2008. * Baseball's Dead of World War II: A Roster of Professional Players Who Died in Service.

McFarland McFarland may refer to: People *McFarland (surname) Places in the United States *McFarland, California, a city *McFarland, Kansas, a city *McFarland, Missouri, a ghost town *McFarland, Wisconsin, a village Other uses * USS ''McFarland'' (DD-237) ...

, 2010. * Baseball in Hawaii During World War II. BiW Publishing, 2021. * Aloha and Sayonara: The 1940 Keio University Baseball Tour of Hawaii. BiW Publishing, 2022.

References

External links

Gary Bedingfield's Baseball in Wartime

Gary Bedingfield's Baseball's Greatest Sacrifice

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bedingfield, Gary Baseball writers English baseball players

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Great Britain national baseball team players English historians Living people 1963 births Sports historians