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I'm also in the U.K. and apparently a British team won the World Amateur championship [beating the U.S.] in 1938, but things never took off. Our major summer sport in cricket, but I feel that is fading at the moment - probably due to the dreadful performances of the England team in recent years. I have always felt that, for a Brit growing up with cricket, it's not too much of a leap to baseball: bowlers and pitchers both use speed, flight and various forms of guile to try and beat the batter; play in the field is similar [though without gloves, in thecase of cricket]; and statistics also play a major part. The other big similarity is that, as with baseball, there is a great tradition of quality writing about cricket which helps evoke the game in days gone by, appealing to the nostagia in all of us.
Given the above, I also wonder why MLB has not made a big push over here. I went to a game in London about 8 years ago between minor leaguers from the Mets and Red Sox systems but, apart from that, I don't think there has been a serious effort. There is a domestic league, being helped at the moment by publicity on Channel 5, the TV station that broadcasts one MLB game per week - which will rise to 2 games per week when the NHL playoffs end. The MLB pundit on the show plays for the national team and they do what they can to "plug" the domestic game.
A few years back the NFL made quite an effort over here, with preseason games [I saw Joe Montana, Steve Young & the 49ers, Mike Ditka's cubs and the Cowboys] but it never really took off. There was the ambitiously titled "World Football League" with franchises in London, Edinburgh and cities in Europe, but that was rationalised into the present NFL Europe and the London franchise disappeared for lack of support. Possibly the NFL's lack of success has put off MLB, but I see them as offering completely different things and would be really happy to see MLB make a serious effort over here.
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