Cardinals, Cubs to resume MLB's London Series

Aug. 4 (UPI) -- The Chicago Cubs will face the St. Louis Cardinals in a two-game series next year in London, MLB announced Thursday.

The series will be held June 24 and 25 at London Stadium. The Cardinals and Cubs were initially scheduled to play the series in 2020, but those plans were wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Boston Red Sox battled the New York Yankees in the last edition of MLB's London Series. Nearly 60,000 fans attended each of those rivalry matchups, which took place June 29 and 30 of 2019 and were the first regular-season games in MLB history to take place in Europe.

"The Cardinals are excited and honored to be a part of the London Series next year," Cardinals owner William O. DeWitt Jr. said in a news release. "The Cardinals-Cubs rivalry is one of the best in sports, and it will be exciting to bring it to Europe for a new audience to experience."

The Cubs traveled to Tokyo in 2020 for two games against the New York Mets. They played a three-game series against the Montreal Expos in 2003 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

The Cardinals battled the Cincinnati Reds in a two-game series in 2019 in Monterrey, Mexico.

The London Series is part of an MLB World Tour, which the league said will run through 2026. MLB's World Tour will include as many as two dozen regular-season games and 16 exhibition games, which will take place in Asia, Latin America, Mexico and Europe.

"The MLB London Series between the Cubs and Cardinals has been in the works for years now, and we're thrilled to finally be able to bring one of baseball's biggest rivalries to fans abroad in 2023," Cubs owner Tom Ricketts said.

"We hope that this series not only excites and entertains, but brings more international sports fans to the game we all love."