Sunday, November 08, 2009

Baseball v. Cricket (continued)

An anonymous writer recently commented on my blog post Baseball v. Cricket (22. april 2008), where I gave my own subjective views on baseball and cricket. I think the comment by 'Anonymous' has some good points, so I've posted the it below.

I agree with Anonymous arguments, except with the claim that the baseball pitchers delivery is much closer to the batter than the cricket bowlers. The cricket crease is 66 feet long, compared to 60 feet and 6 inches between the pitchers mound and home plate. The popping crease (behind which some point the bowlers foot must be behind at delivery), is 4 feet in front of the bowling crease (on which the stumps stand), making the real disance 62 feet, which is that different to the baseball dimisions. Added to that, the batter stands in front of the crease shortening the distance. Finally, both pitcher and bowler stretches towards the batter, thus shortening the distance the batter.

Like 'Anonymous', I am tired of hearing negative comments on baseball by cricket fans. I should be patient and accept that what I perceive as arrogance and snobbery, is really some sort insecurity.

Anonymous wrote:
In my experience I have found that baseball bashers from many a Commonwealth country also tend to be quite ignorant about the sport of baseball.

There are some key factors that cricket defenders seem to completely ignore:

1) Baseball pitchers consistently throw faster than cricket bowlers

2) A pitcher delivers from much closer than a bowler

3) The surface area of a cricket bat is far greater than a baseball bat, and the flat cricket bat further skews the advantage in favor of the cricket batsmen

5) The cricket pitch configuration greatly skews the contest in favor of a batsman because he can hit anywhere within 360 degrees. In baseball you have boundaries segmenting the field allowing a batsman to only direct the baseball within a 90 degree boundary.

4) So long as ANY contact is made by a cricket batsman, whether it be poor or solid contact, it is most certainly rewarded FAR MORE in cricket than in baseball. In baseball, a player who cannot consistently make solid contact cannot succeed - PERIOD. You can have poor batsmen who can only foul off pitches but never make solid contact in baseball who, if they did the same thing in cricket, may never be put out - particularly if they only need to take half swings, just make contact, and put the ball anywhere they can.

In baseball a batsmen does not just simply have to make a minimum contact - HE MUST HIT THE BALL HARD, WITH AUTHORITY AND DIRECTED ACCURATELY, AND DONE WITH CONSISTENCY AGAINST AN OPPONENT THAT THROWS HARDER, IS CLOSER, AND IS REWARDED BY GETTING THE BATSMEN TO ONLY FOUL TIP THE BALL.

I can appreciate the complexities of cricket. But you get tired of hearing all the arrogant, ignorant snobs who have never tried to even hit a baseball.