So the US has finally joined the rest of the world....

Torgo said:

Cricket, with its dizzying variations in bowling styles and paces - spin, swing, seam - is very different from baseball, in which the only really unique pitchers seem to be knuckleball pitchers, who are dying out it seems.

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What? Each pitcher is unique. They all have their own repertoire of pitches (and there isn't just one type of fastball, there are dozens, just as there are many variations of curve balls), but they can't dance around like an ass before they deliver the ball to disguise it. They have to depend on their own abilities. The duel between pitcher and batter has created some of the game's greatest moments.

And the diamond is just the perfect size. If the bases were even just a little closer or farther away you wouldn't have so many exciting plays, such as double plays or the many close plays at the plate that are almost literally a tie in many instances between the runner and the baseman catching the ball.

If you prefer cricket that's fine, but don't try to make it sound like baseball is boring because it's anything but if you understand the strategies and intricacies of the game.

PorterStarrByrd said:

The fact that not many people play cricket here is a pretty good sign that it has been discovered before and outed as a long boring game.
The original base ballers in New York and Boston shucked it aside and wrote up the baseball rules. When club teams of US baseball players returned to England to play matches vs English teams they beat them soundly. Then they returned to refine baseball that could be played in two hours instead of two days.
I've played cricket and it is an easier game to play than baseball is and I watched cricket matches in Hawaii about fifty years ago. Last I checked that is part of the US, and the English game hasn't caught on here in that length of time, though there are, have been for many years, places in the US where it is enjoyed. Actually it was played here long before the American Pastime was invented, with players like George and Harry Wright excelling.

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Cricket and baseball are nothing alike in character. Cricket unfolds over time, and it's a battle of psychological attrition over hours and days. The wear on the ball and the wicket, and the ability to concentrate over time, are crucial. Baseball is much more a quick-result game. I appreciate both, so I have no dog in this fight.

And easier to play?

Try catching a line drive with no glove. From a standing start. From twenty meters away (or, if you're playing silly point, about five meters).

Try facing up to a bowler bringing the ball in at 140kph. Who is *allowed* to aim for your body.

Try setting a field to catch a batsman when he can hit the ball in any direction.

I understand you've played... some. But, with respect, I suspect your experience wasn't at the top level. And to call another nation's game boring - even with a smiley face attached - doesn't exactly promote intelligent discourse.

I moved to Australia at twenty-nine, and I'm forty-nine now. So I've had ample opportunity to watch both games (I played a lot of baseball, but I haven't played much cricket). I would never suggest that one is better or worse than the other. They have common attributes and lineage, but the two games are totally different.

And I really have no sympathy for the notion that liking one thing means that all others must be inferior and deserve to be derided. It seems an unkind, narrow-minded approach to me.

mirandashell said:

Really? So the fact that pretty much everywhere but the American continent plays cricket and not baseball means nothing?

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When I was teaching in Taiwan my students were obsessed with baseball! They cheered for their local teams and the Yankees because of Chien-Ming Wang. It's also very popular in Japan and Korea.

Surely you all have seen this video. It kind of sums up how most Americans feel about cricket.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEH4ahCCrJo

Then again, I'm American and I hate baseball as well. In fact, I thought 'futbol' was boring as hell too before I moved to Spain.

gringo said:

Surely you all have seen this video. It kind of sums up how most Americans feel about cricket.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEH4ahCCrJo

Then again, I'm American and I hate baseball as well. In fact, I thought 'futbol' was boring as hell too before I moved to Spain.

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This clip was really too funny Thanks for sharing, gringo.

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that something should be experienced for it to be appreciated. monsteR doesn't understand American sports, because I've not experienced them. I adore cricket (test, ODI, T20... all day, every day), but that's the sport I know. Who knows, maybe if I'd grown up with baseball I would have taken a shine to that.

I will say this though... running between the wickets in flip-flops is a very bad idea (speaking from personal experience).