Joey Mellows - The Baseball Brit

It all started with a broken heart

This week’s Moonlighter has squeezed a lifetime of fandom into the last few years. Baseball was not part of the story growing up in the UK, but Joey Mellows has made up for the lost time and earned his title “the Baseball Brit”. While he won’t call himself an expert of the game of baseball, he is an expert in fandom and the intricacies of great ballparks. 

Joey Mellow’s first fell in love with the experience of the baseball game Japan in 2015. He then developed his love for the game with another Brit Moonlighter Andy Brown. Mellows had to watch English broadcasts of MLB games early in the morning to learn the rules of his new pastime. The noise, customs, and environment of the Japanese and Korean baseball leagues were what drew Mellos in. While living in South Korea, the two became passionate KBO fans, going to games, collecting cards, and Brown painting the ballparks.

The go-to meal was a hot dog, peanuts, and a Miller Lite.

That love for baseball remained when life took him back to the UK. When love threw him a curveball, Mellows took the money he had been saving for a wedding and home and spent it on the most epic baseball road trip you can imagine. Mellows crisscrossed the US on a trip that included 150 baseball games over 8 months. The Baseball Brit built up a following on social media as he toured the country and tried to experience the game, stadiums, and cities of American baseball.

There was a lot of luck involved

Those connections turned into World Series tickets from the wife of the Houston Astros GM, a free flight from an airline pilot who loves LSU, and a die-hard passion for Tulane University. Mellows is currently working on a book about his baseball adventure and hopes to finish it and release it soon.