Swedens Baseball Legends

With the Major League Baseball playoffs under way on the other side of the Atlantic, I thought I'd do my part to increase the popularity of the sport here in Sweden. I think the locals should have a little more pride, and the world a little more respect for Swedens rich baseball heritage. Granted, it has been the better part of a century since a Swede donned a big league uniform, but that doesn't make their impact on the game any less impressive. So forget Salming, Borg, Sörenstam and Zlatan, here are four real pioneers of Swedish sport. Here are the 4 Swedish born players to appear in the Majors.....

Charlie Bold, born in Karlskrona. Charlie was in the lineup for two games with the St. Louis Browns in 1914. He had one at-bat and struck out. He also had one error.
Axel Lindström, born in Gustavsberg. This guy had a .500 career batting average! He played one game for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1916 where he had two at-bats and one hit.
Charlie Hallström, born in Jönköping. Nicknamed "The Swedish Wonder", Charlie played one game for the Providence Grays in 1885. Charlie pitched a complete game in his one big league appearance where he allowed 18 hits and 11 earned runs. He was 0 for 4 at the plate with 2 stikeouts.
Eric Ericksson, born in Göteborg. Eric has to be the king of Swedish baseball. He played parts of 8 seasons with the New York Giants, Detroit Tigers and Washington Senators between 1914 and 1922. His best year being 1920 when he won 12 games as a pitcher and boasted a .277 batting average for Washington.