Josh Chetwynd
From BR Bullpen
Joshua Chetwynd
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 6' 0", Weight 195 lb.
- School Northwestern University
- Born September 11, 1971 in London Great Britain
[edit] Biographical Information
Josh Chetwynd has had a long and wide-ranging career in baseball.
Chetwynd was born in Great Britain but grew up in the United States. He played four years of NCAA Division I baseball at Northwestern University and was named to Academic All Big Ten teams twice. After college, he played in the Frontier League for the 1993 Zanesville Greys. Looking to continue his baseball career in 1996, he e-mailed the British Baseball Federation to see if there were opportunities to play ball in his homeland. Kevin Macadam, the vice president of the BBF, promptly invited Chetwynd to play for the British national team in the European Championship B-Pool; Chetwynd hit .412 with a .706 slugging percentage as Great Britain went on to win Gold and get back into the A Pool.
Chetwynd would spend 10 years playing for the British national squad. He was 4 for 15 with a double and a hit by pitch in the 1999 European Championship and had a 0-1, 7.71 record on the mound. In the 2001 European Championship, the catcher batted .353/.389/.412 for the second-best average on Great Britain. Chetwynd was 4 for 18 with a .364 OBP in the 2003 European Championship.
In 2003, Chetwynd also played in the Elitserien in Sweden, helping Oskarshamn to a share of the regular season title and to a spot in the Swedish Cup finals before they fell. He finished among the league leaders in average (.438, 5th), hits (32, tied for 7th) and RBI (20, tied for 12th).
Chetwynd has also played and coached in Britian's top league. He served as player/manager for the London Mets in 2007 and 2008, winning back-to-back national championships. In 2009, he won a third national championship as a member of the Bracknell Blazers. Over six seasons, Chetwynd hit .440/.504/.525.
A journalist, Chetwynd has covered Major League Baseball for British television. He was on the board of the British Baseball Federation for a period and also worked for more than a year for as a communications executive in MLB's London office. In 2009, he served as the General Manager (as well as MLB-appointed travel manager) for the South African team at the World Baseball Classic.
Chetwynd has authored two books on baseball - British Baseball and the West Ham Club: History of a 1930s Professional Team in East London (co-authored) and Baseball in Europe.
[edit] Sources
- Big Ten Baseball Record Book
- SABR database
- 1996 European B-Pool Championship statistics
- International baseball statistician Harry Wedemeijer
- Author's introduction to Baseball in Europe
- 2003 Elitserien leaders
- British national team statistics
- British baseball statistics
- Correspondence with Mr. Chetwynd
[edit] Further Reading
- Josh Chetwynd: Baseball in Europe: A Country By Country History, McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 2008.
- Josh Chetwynd and Brian A. Belton: British Baseball and the West Ham Club: History of a 1930s Professional Team in East London, McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 2007.
