IN A COUNTRY full of football, rugby and cricket stars, young Alex Lintern went in a different direction on dress-up day at school.

“I was two people: a baseball player and Spider-Man,” the six-year-old Londoner said.

That was shortly after the World Baseball Classic, where Britain’s first-ever win at the tournament sparked some interest back home. Harry Ford, the 20-year-old American catcher with British parents, became a mini-celebrity.

Baseball enthusiasts in Britain — there’s more than you’d think, they say — hope to build on that momentum with the return of Major League Baseball to London this weekend when the St Louis Cardinals face the Chicago Cubs at London Stadium.