Talk to enough baseball enthusiasts, and you’ll eventually find one who isn’t completely stupid about cricket. In fact, some will rightly note modern cricket essentially borrowed its fielding techniques from baseball coaches and trainers (the name Mike Young will pop up at this point).
Sure, the game’s not as interesting or complex or, quite frankly, as difficult, as cricket, but it has its charms (and it’s the best of American sports). In that spirit, I wanted to pass around a note for the re-launching of a baseball league in Australia next week (disclosure: I have family invested in the effort):
Next weekend sees that start of a new era in Australian baseball with the first game of a new national league. Some ten years after the collapse of its previous incarnation the Australian Baseball League comprising teams from Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth will run from November through to the end of January.
That link also has details on baseball’s history in Australia. Apparently, Ian Chappell knows what a curveball is. Huh.
I disagree that baseball isn’t as complex or difficult as cricket (what does ‘difficult’ even mean here? To get to the top of any sport you need to be at the far end of the bell curve describing the relevant skills). There is an enormous amount of in-game strategy involved in baseball.
I’ll probably go to a few Brisbane games, though judging by Queensland’s performance in last summer’s Claxton Shield, the local team are woeful.
Good on you for supporting the ABL. Like David, I don’t agree that baseball is not as complex or difficult as cricket. I think that while both games share some skillsets, they each have some very unique and challenging situational and tactical aspects.
Funnily enough, I reckon there’s an argument that modern day cricket is becoming more and more like baseball. There is a emphasis on shorter games and bigger hits. a T20 game is over in a few hours, encourages aggressive batting and running, and sees plenty of ‘home runs’. Sounds familiar.
Good points. I was mostly poking fun at baseball, not offering a real critique of it. And obviously, it’s difficult to compare sports (apples to oranges, and all that).
of course, of course. i was just joshing