The 2016 elections for the British Baseball Hall of Fame saw the number of inductees increase to 29. Alex Malihoudis, Oscar Marcelino, and John Thomas were all inducted from the modern ballot, while Wally O’Neil became the first person enshrined via the newly formed historical vetting panel (comprising Josh Chetwynd, Joe Gray, and Anthony Taylor). A common thread is that all four of the latest inductees represented the Great Britain national team during their playing careers.

Alex Malihoudis the first British player to ever win medals in two different European Championship events, Alex Malihoudis was not only a regular fixture domestically at the top of many offensive categories in the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s but was also a trailblazer as a British player willing to go to the US to develop his craft.

Malihoudis learned his first baseball in British Baseball Hall of Famer Margaret Borley’s Tonbridge Bobcats Youth Baseball Club. Devoted to the sport from the start (and showing great ability), he solicited support to go to the US to play baseball first at Archbishop Mitty High School in California and then at the NCAA Division III Menlo College. Back in the UK, he earned a gold medal in his very first senior appearance with the Great Britain National Team in 1996. He also played as a professional in both France’s and Germany’s top leagues. Among his peers Malihoudis known as one of the best player during the first 10 years of the National Baseball League.