The pitcher became a rare phenomenon this summer: an Irish, of sorts, professional baseball playerAdam Macko of the Toronto Blue Jays pitches against the San Diego Padres last month. Photograph: Orlando Ramirez/Getty Fri Aug 07 2026 - 12:00 • 4 MIN READWhile taking batting practice during a Greystones Mariners training session, Leo Farrell found himself facing a 12-year-old. An Irish baseball international in the batter’s box, a child on the mound.The youngster threw a change-up, a pitch meant to flummox a hitter by appearing faster than it actually is. Farrell couldn’t adjust, his swing only making soft contact. He was thrown out at first base. Bested by a child. Farrell walked back to the dugout with one thought on his mind: “Who is this guy?”More than a dozen years later, that pitcher made his Major League Baseball debut for the Toronto Blue Jays. Now 25, Adam Macko became a rare phenomenon this summer: an Irish (ish) professional baseball player.There have been Irish big leaguers aplenty, immigration across the Atlantic leading to a fair share of familiar-sounding names taking to the diamond. Yet not many were born on these shores. PJ Conlon came into this world in Belfast and played one season for the New York Mets in 2018. He only stayed on this island for two years before moving to California. Before him, the last Irish-born player was Joe Cleary in 1945. Macko was not born in Ireland but Bratislava, Slovakia – neither a baseball stronghold. He was 12 when his family relocated to Wicklow. Adam Marko, front right with blue cap with letter S on it, winning a little league title with Greystones By sounding out entertainment for the children, Macko’s father landed in Wicklow and brought him along to the Greystones Mariners. During his two-season stint, Macko was part of a team that won a Little League championship. Aged 14, Macko’s family moved again, this time to Canada. That’s where professional baseball became more realistic. Those who came across him in Greystones don’t claim to have played a defining role in Macko’s athletic development. That doesn’t stop their pride in seeing one of your own make it. Farrell says, jokingly, how he’d like to see Macko pick up an injury, shelving his pro career and returning to line out for Greystones. Before representing Canada in spring at baseball’s equivalent of the World Cup, some even hoped he’d play for Ireland once his professional career wrapped up.“For him to come to Ireland and land on our doorstep was incredible,” says Gareth Donnelly, another Irish international who worked with Macko at the Mariners. “You see kids coming through now and as soon as they throw a ball or swing a bat, you can tell straight away if they’re at the level. He’s a pitcher at the moment, but he was able to hit, run the bases, field the ball. Every aspect of the game stood out. He was way ahead of the rest of the kids.”When Charlie Smyth recently traded in kicking frees with Mayobridge for field goals in New Orleans, a stream of Irish lads dreaming of the NFL followed in his wake, mostly to American colleges. Could Macko lead to a similar phenomenon, one man carving a path for many more to replicate? For a variety of reasons, the progression of this predominantly North American sport in Ireland is not expected to be as linear.'Kids now are talking about pro baseball. At that time when Adam was talking about it, it was crazy', says Leo Farrell about Macko's time in Ireland. Photograph: Orlando Ramirez/Getty “We’re definitely better positioned now to develop players in Ireland,” Donnelly says. “We have an indoor centre now in Finglas. The general level of baseball is rising all the time now: they’re hitting the ball harder, fielding the ball better. More of them are going to the States.”Farrell says: “I don’t think the skills for the sports we play here are transferable to baseball. We once did a home run derby with hurlers and they naturally were able to hit the ball very far. “But it’s just the throwing, it’s not something we do in other sports. It’s very hard to retain a local Irish player that’s skilful because he’s probably good at other sports and if he wants to be an athlete and have a career, that’s the way to go.“But what I would say is kids now are talking about pro baseball. They’re thinking about it. At that time when Adam was talking about it, it was crazy. At least now it’s potentially possible, you go to college and you see what happens.”Adam Marko, second row, fourth left, with his Greystones team-mates The closest the Mariners have come to replicating Macko is James Kelly, who moved to Ireland aged 12. He is now pitching at the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York in division three of the American college system. It’s not the big leagues, but it’s something. As for Macko, there was a world in which he could have debuted for the Seattle namesake of his Irish team after being drafted by the Mariners in 2019. Instead, they traded him to Toronto in 2022. He moved his way up through the minor league system, not in time to be part of the Jays’ run to the World Series last year, but he earned the call up this season and has appeared in 22 games. As part of the recent trade deadline flurry, Macko was dealt from Toronto to the Texas Rangers.In Greystones, they still joke about teaching Macko his change-up. The process of learning English largely took place in Wicklow. Farrell and Donnelly show pictures of the Greystones Mariners wristband Macko used to wear. One clubman has his rookie baseball card, no doubt to be signed one day by the man himself.Baseball in Ireland is growing. More players do see it as a pathway to college across the Atlantic. But the odds of playing in Ireland and ending up in the big leagues? Donnelly, embracing realism, reflects Irish baseball’s contented outlook on Macko’s unique story: “I don’t know if we’re ever going to get another Adam.”IN THIS SECTION