Bat-and-ball games, in general, are sports in which one team (the fielding team) has possession of the ball and delivers it to a member of the other team (the batting team), who tries to hit it. The two opposing teams take turns playing these two distinct roles, which are continuous during a specified interval. This contrasts with "goal-oriented" games, such as all forms of football, hockey and basketball, in which possession of the ball or puck can change in an instant, and thus "attackers" and the "defenders" frequently reverse roles during the course of the game.
In both cricket and baseball, the players of one team attempt to score points known as runs by hitting a ball with a bat, while the members of the other team field the ball in an attempt to prevent scoring and to put batting players out.
In both games, there is a defensive aspect to the batting team concurrent with its "offensive" or "attacking" aspect of trying to score runs. In cricket, the batsman is attempting to defend the wicket. In baseball, the batter is attempting to defend the strike zone.
Once a certain number of batting players are out (different in the two sports), the teams swap roles. This sequence of each team taking each role once is called an inning in baseball, and an innings in cricket (the singular form having a terminal 's'). The single/plural usage in cricket is comparable to the baseball slang term for a single inning as the team's "ups". A baseball game consists of nine innings, while a cricket match may have either one or two innings per team.
Despite their similarities, the two sports also have many differences in play and in strategy. A comparison between cricket and baseball can be instructive to followers of either sport, since the similarities help to highlight nuances particular to each game.
Field
- Main articles: Baseball field, Cricket field, Cricket pitch
- Baseball
Baseball is played in a quadrant of fair territory between foul lines. The official minimum distance from home plate to the far edge of fair territory is 250 feet (76.2 m), but the recommended distances are at least 325 feet (99 m) along the foul lines and 400 feet (120 m) in center field.[1]This produces a recommended fair territory field area just over 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2). Most Major League Baseball parks have fair territory areas in the range of 110,000 to 120,000 square feet (10,000 to 11,000 m2).[2]
- Cricket
In contrast, Test and One Day International cricket is played on a field with a minimum width of 420 feet (128.0 m) and length 426 feet (129.8 m), giving a minimum area of 140,500 square feet (13,050 m2), assuming an elliptical shape. However the shape of a cricket ground is not fixed. Test grounds around the world are typically 450 by 500 feet (140 by 150 m), an area of 175,000 square feet (16,300 m2), and range up to the Melbourne Cricket Ground at 479 by 561 feet (146.0 by 171.0 m) or 270,000 square feet (25,000 m2).
- Consequences
Discounting the pitcher/bowler and catcher/wicket-keeper, this means Major League Baseball fielders must cover an average of approximately 16,500 square feet (1,530 m2) per fielder, while Test cricketers cover 19,500 square feet (1,810 m2) per fielder. That average is misleading because the difference between area covered on the parts of outfielders (on the one hand) and infielders (on the other), is vast. In baseball, Infielders cover a small area in which the ball moves very fast, while three outfielders must cover an area that encompasses a much greater proportion of the playing surface. Something similar—if not quite as pronounced—is true in cricket. In practice, fielders in both sports cover variable amounts of territory, with outfielders potentially having to run much farther to field a ball than infielders do.
Another consequence is that the maximum distance from the batsman in cricket to the boundary is far smaller than the maximum distance from the batter in baseball and the outfield wall. Since the pitch in cricket lies at the center of the field, a ball can often be driven beyond the boundary at even the greatest distance from the pitch by a blow that travels around 275 feet (83.8 m) . By contrast, a home run to 'dead center' in baseball must travel more than 400 feet (121.9 m). This is possible, also, because the ball leaves the bat in baseball, when hit squarely, at a higher velocity, and travels farther; but this also means that outfielders in baseball must frequently cover considerably greater distances than any cricket fielding a ball are ever obliged to do.
- Bowling/Pitching distance
In cricket, the distance between the two wickets that the batsmen defend is 22 yards (20.1 m), 66 feet, or 1 chain (4 rods) in the old English system of measurement. The rectangular area between the two lines is called the pitch. In baseball, the pitcher must deliver from a rubber slab (officially called the "pitcher's plate" and typically called "the rubber") whose front is 60.5 feet (18.4 m) from the point of home plate (officially called "home plate" and often simply "home"). Before the advent of the pitcher's mound and the rubber, the pitcher threw from within a rectangular "pitcher's box". There was a large rectangular dirt area, between the pitcher's box and the batting areas around home, which resembled the cricket pitch.
In cricket, the wicket stumps and the bowling creases are 66 feet apart. The popping creases are 4 feet (1.22 m) in front of the stumps and thus are 58 feet (17.7 m) feet apart. The bowler's release point could be perhaps 1 foot (0.30 m) beyond his popping crease. The batsman tends to "take guard" or "block" on the popping crease, i.e. he stands 4 feet (1.22 m) in front of his stumps. That nets to a typical distances of about 57 feet (17.4 m) between delivery point and bat. In baseball, the pitcher's release point could be about 55 feet (16.8 m) depending on his delivery style, but the batter also tends to stand back or "deep" in the batter's box, to maximize his time to "look the ball over", up to 2 feet (0.61 m) farther from the pitching rubber than the point of home plate is. Although the delivery distance, from release of the ball by the pitcher/bowler to its arrival at the batter/batsman, appears to be similar in both sports, the ball actually travels further in cricket as it bounces off the ground first.
[edit]Play
[edit]Fielding
- Main articles: Baseball positions, Baseball positioning, Fielding (cricket)
The main difference from fielding in the two sports is that the fielders in cricket are not allowed to use any sort of protection for the hands – padded or otherwise, even though the balls are of similar hardness. The only exception to this rule in cricket is made for the wicket-keeper, who is allowed to wear padded gloves as well as leg guards and a box. In baseball, catchers and first basemen normally wear mitts, which have no fingers and are specially designed for each position respectively. The other fielders wear gloves, which have fingers. (Note that early baseball was also played bare-handed; gloves were adopted in the latter 19th Century.) This means that the risk of hand injury due the impact of the ball is far higher in cricket. Also, especially in Test cricket, it is common for several fielders to be stationed close to the bat (slips, short leg, silly point and similar positions) since the value of dismissing a batsman off a catch is higher. Catching at these positions require exceptional reflexes, skill and courage, associated with bare-handed catching of a hard ball traveling at up to 100 miles per hour (160 km/h), with reaction times of the order of 0.2 seconds.
Baseball games have far lower scores than cricket matches. The largest combined runs total in a single game in the history of Major League Baseball is 49, whereas first-class cricket matches, including Tests, have produced combined totals from both innings of over a thousand runs.
For a more direct comparison, matches in Twenty20 cricket, a form of limited overs cricket in which games last about as long in time as a regulation baseball game, regularly produce combined run totals of 300 or more, with the all-time record being 443. Each run in a baseball game is roughly seventy-five times the magnitude of a run in a Test cricket match; therefore moments of poor pitching (akin to bowling in cricket) and individual fielding mistakes are much more costly. A player who is a good batter, but who is not a competent fielder, will not play regularly, or only in the designated hitter position in leagues that use it.
Baseball players often need to throw immediately after catching the struck ball (for example, the double play), while this is unnecessary in cricket as the ball is deemed "dead" when a "dismissal" takes place. Hence, fielders in Cricket have a greater incentive to dive and take a catch.
The configuration of the baseball diamond effectively bars left-handers from the fielding positions that make throwing to first base a primary responsibility. Right-handers can throw to their left—i.e., toward first base—with much greater ease than can left-handers, so virtually all second basemen, shortstops, and third basemen are right-handed. Left-handed catchers are also exceedingly rare; while the reasons appear to be primarily cultural, handling bunts up the third-base line and throws on plays at home pose particular obstacles to left-handed catchers.[3]
While most throws a first baseman must make go to the right, which a left-hander can generally accomplish with greater speed and fluency, this is a relatively small factor in the advantage for left-handed first baseman. More important advantages are related to the position of a left-handed first baseman with respect to the base. First, a left-handed first baseman has an advantage over his right-handed counterpart when catching a pickoff throw from the pitcher—when a first baseman is in pickoff position, standing in front of the bag, the left-hander can catch the ball and make a tag without having to move his arm across his body. (See the picture in the Strategy over the course of the game section below for the standard pickoff position with a right-handed first baseman.) Second, because the first baseman starts most plays with his left leg closer to the base, the left-hander does not have to make a half-pivot in order to get into the correct position to stretch out for a throw. For these reasons, left-handed throwers are far more common at first base than in the general population of baseball players. In contrast, cricket is fielded in the round: the handedness of the fielder in any given position is of far less consequence, and left-handers and right-handers are found in all parts of the field.
Body contact between runner and fielder is frequent in baseball, particularly at home plate. This is driven to a large extent by the manner in which a runner is put out. In both sports, rules prohibit interfering with runners. However, in baseball, the runner himself (or the base he is advancing to, if forced) must be tagged by a fielder holding the ball, in order to be put out. The catcher awaiting a throw will often stand between the plate and the runner. Once he catches it, the runner might try to go around the catcher, or he might simply bowl the catcher over, if he thinks he can dislodge the ball by such contact; and if the catcher does not have the ball, the runner may still bowl the catcher over, which is considered fair because by rule a fielder without a ball cannot impede a runner. By contrast, in cricket, an out or dismissal is made by the ball dislodging the bails from the stumps. The stumps are the target for "tagging" rather than the runner. No contact of the runners is either necessary or allowed. Contact between opposing sides is rare, and is usually not deliberate. Violent contact between players was once even greater in baseball, as before the Knickerbocker Rules it was permitted in some versions of the game to literally "throw out" a runner by hitting him (or "soaking" him) with a thrown ball (in lieu of hitting a base or stake that would equate to cricket's wickets). This rule still exists in some versions of the baseball variant called kickball, which is played with a soccer ball and thus is much less injurious. Kickball also calls for literal "bowling" of the ball, underhand, as with the old rules of both cricket and baseball.
[edit]Batting
- Main articles: Batting (cricket), Batting (baseball)
One of the main differences between baseball and Test cricket is the primary intent of the batsman. Usually, in Test cricket, wickets come at a far higher premium, since survival is of primary importance. While nine innings are played in a baseball game within a few hours, only two are played in Test cricket over five days (thirty hours), so the cost of a dismissal is far higher in cricket. The nuances of batting technique are also greater in cricket, since the interplays between bowling variations, field placements and scoring strengths are more dynamic. Since cricket is played over an extended duration, it gives the bowler and the fielding captain time to "work over" a batsman. Thus, cricket batting requires a very tight technique and the ability to withstand sustained examinations.
Since the cricket bat is wide and flat, while the baseball bat is narrow and round, on the whole cricket batsmen find it easier to hit and direct the ball than baseball batters, resulting in much greater number of runs being scored in a cricket match. While bowlers can influence the ability of the batsmen to do so, perhaps the most famous episode being the now-banned Bodyline tactic, cricket batsmen are able to use a wider variety of batting strokes to direct the ball in many directions into a field which provides much more open space than in baseball. In addition, cricket batsmen are under no obligation to attempt to score a run after any stroke, but must strike balls in order to prevent them from hitting the wicket. Many strokes are in fact defensive in nature against a well-bowled ball and the quality of defensive batting is often the determining factor of a batsman's success over his career.
By contrast, the balance of power is largely reversed in baseball. While particularly skilled batters have some ability to place hit and direct the ball to desired locations, the pitcher's influence is much more dramatic. Pitchers induce more ground outs, fly outs, or strikeouts, depending on the style of pitch. Thus particular pitchers are known for causing batters to make certain kinds of outs, depending on their mastered pitches. Also, in contrast to cricket, baseball batters must attempt to take first base on any ball put into fair territory, and failing to do so will result in an out, but the size of the strike zone more strictly limits the set of deliveries that must be swung at compared to cricket. Like cricket, baseball batters do have a defensive tactic available; many batters will often attempt to deliberately foul off pitches that are strikes yet difficult to hit well, by hitting them into foul territory, awaiting an easier delivery later in the at-bat. Since an uncaught foul ball cannot be a third strike (unless it was a bunt attempt), this tactic allows the batter to receive more pitches.
In the early generations of baseball, the emphasis was mostly on bat control, place hitting, bunting, etc., and that is still true for the most part today. An accomplished hitter must know how to bunt, 'serve' a pich down the line or over the infield, collapse his hands and go the other way, pull his hands in in order to turn on the ball inside, and so on. But, starting in 1919, several factors resulted in a dramatic expansion of strategic orientation, supplementing traditional "small ball" with the "power game": a "livelier" ball, because of better materials and a tighter weave; more frequent substitutions of new balls; lighter, more flexible bats; the outlawing of the spitball; and the increase in attendance which drove owners to build more outfield seating, thus reducing the outfield area significantly. The power game has been encouraged further in recent years, by the construction of new ballparks with smaller outfields than previously, and even the reduction of field size at "classic" ballparks known for spacious outfields; for example, the distance to the fence in deep left field at the original Yankee Stadium was reduced from 430 to 399 feet (130 to 122 m) between 1984 and 1988 (the post-1988 dimensions were maintained at the current Yankee Stadium). Still, it is generally agreed that no one can hit a home run at will, and every successful batter knows never to go to the plate intending to hit a home run. Rather, he should attempt a level swing, try to pull only the ball on the inside of the plate, go the other way with balls low and outside, and otherwise start each at bat intending to drive the ball up the middle, which is the most vulnerable part of the infield (especially if the pitcher is not particularly good at fielding his position).
The games emphasize power hitting to different degrees. Cricket requires the accumulation of large numbers of runs, so placement of the ball between the fielders produces runs quickly and is a better strategy than "swinging for sixes"[citation needed]. In baseball, power hitting can produce runs quickly and frequently in many situations[citation needed], as well as force pitching changes and other fielding moves; but it can also result (because of the great difficulty of driving a ball off a cylindrical bat) in a great many strike outs, fly outs, and ground outs. "Manufacturing runs" or "small ball" is still the soundest means for scoring runs against good pitching and defense. Teams with winning records are those that combine deep pitching and defense with a good balance of small ball and power hitting. In most game situations, the classic methods for manufacturing runs are the most successful. The final play of the 2001 World Series was a flare single to drive in the winning run. Batter Luis Gonzalez, one of the great power hitting outfielders of his time, stated in the Series DVD commentary that he choked up on the bat and went for a single, a small ball strategy with a much greater likelihood of success than "swinging for the fences". In cricket, however, situations can arise in a match where power hitting, also called "slogging", is required. This typically occurs towards the final overs of a limited overs game. So, though baseball is the game that features more power hitting, as a strategy there are far fewer situations in baseball in which it would be correct to rely on the power game.
[edit]Bowling/pitching
Cricket bowlers, since they are not restricted to a small strike zone as their target, also use a wide variety of approaches which are not available to baseball pitchers. These involve varying the line and length of deliveries and using unpredictable movement caused by the ball bouncing on the pitch before it reaches the batsman. Baseball pitchers, by contrast, must use changes in ball speed and movement (cricket bowlers also vary ball speed) caused only by air friction and spin to deceive batters, as most pitches which come near touching the ground are ineffectively allowed to pass as balls. The raised undulating stitching on a baseball allows an accomplished pitcher to create a huge variety of motions in the air; even fastballs are thrown in such a way as to create certain kinds of movement. The cricket ball also moves in the air, to a lesser degree than the baseball, bit it achieves its most pronounced movement on the bounce. Furthermore, pitchers must begin their throw from a stationary position, while bowlers may run up to their delivery. (In the early days of baseball, the pitcher pitched from anywhere within a "box" and so had more flexibility as to where to stand when releasing the ball, before the 1880s.) Baseball pitchers also throw from an elevated mound (10 in or 25 cm above the level of home plate), while cricket bowlers are at the same height as the batsman and must bowl with an overarm rotation of the arm during which the arm must be kept straight. (This was also a restriction on pitchers in the early days of baseball, abolished in the 1880s.) Despite the differences in delivery action, the delivery speeds are similar for both sports with the fastest bowlers and pitchers propelling the ball in the region of 95–100 mph (150–160 km/h): the fastest recorded cricket delivery is 100.02 mph (160.97 km/h)[4][5]with baseball's record marginally quicker at 100.9 mph (162.4 km/h).[6] There have been radar gun readings of baseball pitchers considerably faster than that, but not under controlled conditions sufficient to warrant certainty on the matter. It is the case, however, that baseball pitches near or at 100 mph are considerably more common than bowled balls of comparable velocity in cricket. The bowler in cricket is not premitted to bend his arm in delivering the ball, and this is one very significant reason why baseball pitchers can throw faster with more frequency.
One main difference, however, is that the ball in cricket is harder and heavier in weight. The legal weight for the ball in baseball is not to be under 5 ounces (142 g) but never to be over 5.25 ounces (149 g). The ball in cricket must weigh between 5.5 to 5.8 ounces (156 to 164 g).
Cricket's bowlers are grouped into different categories based on their bowling style—pacemen, seamers, off-spinners (or finger-spinners), leg-spinners (or wrist-spinners)—though a bowler may fall into more than one category (pace and seam bowling, for instance, largely overlap).
Baseball's pitchers are classified primarily by their throwing hand (left or right) and their usual role in games. A starting pitcher begins games, typically not more than one game in five, in a rotation with four teammates who are also starters who will start games in a sequential cycle, and usually pitch five or more innings. Starters rarely appear as substitutes in games started by others. A relief pitcher enters games later, sometimes on short notice in crisis situations in which there are already runners on base and/or the opponent's best hitters due to bat, and usually pitches fewer innings in any given game. But relievers may be called upon to pitch in several games consecutively. Some relievers even specialize further strictly as closers brought in just to pitch the last inning of a game in which his side leads by a narrow margin.
Pitchers are sometimes secondarily grouped according to pitching style, type of pitch most often used, or velocity. However, there are many different variations on how the pitch is actually delivered, this includes the conventional overhand, in which the ball is thrown from the 6 o'clock position, and 3/4 styles as well as the less common sidearm and submarine deliveries in which pitches are thrown from lower clock positions.
For reasons that continue to spur debate, it is historically the case that most right-handed pitchers succeed at higher rates against right-handed hitters than against left-handers, and that most left-handed pitchers succeed at higher rates against left-handed hitters than right-handers.
One substantial strategic element to baseball is to utilize this phenomenon as much as possible. Defenses try to force a match between pitcher and hitter by side, and the attempt by offenses to mismatch them; both sides using substitutions at times to accomplish the desired outcome. One response to this phenomenon is that many hitters, amongst them, a number of the finest and most powerful to play the game, such as Mickey Mantle and Eddie Murray, became adept as youngsters to hitting both left-handed and right-handed to prevent defenses from utilizing that advantage against them. Many professional clubs employ as many as two or three switch hitters so as to neutralize the advantage of side selection. However, no switch pitchers have played in the major leagues in modern times.
In addition, if a baseball batter is struck with a pitch, he is awarded first base; "hitting" the batter includes hitting loose parts of his uniform without hitting his body (baseball rules specify that a player's person includes his uniform and equipment). Pitchers may throw close to the batters, and a "brushback" is often used as an intimidation tactic. Deliberately hitting a batter is fairly uncommon, however, chiefly because it is punished severely. If the umpire believes a batter was intentionally hit, the umpire has his discretion on a first offense to warn both benches that the pitcher for either team will be expelled from the game if there are any further hit batsmen (the one baseball term in which "batsman" is used). The warning—and the power to expel if it is contravened—is intended not only to protect batters but to avert fighting; being hit by a fastball is taken seriously by batters, and bench-clearing brawls occasionally result when one team decides the other is deliberately throwing at its batters. Amazingly, in the history of the major league game, only one player has ever been killed by a pitched ball striking him in the head. This occurred before the invention of the batting helmet and was the principal cause for introducing this piece of equipment into the game.
In cricket, bowlers consider the right to hit batsmen as part of their armoury; indeed, one of the most common methods of dismissal (leg before wicket) requires the bowler to hit the batsman's body rather than his bat. A fast bowler will punctuate his overs with deliveries intended to bounce up toward the batsmen's head, either to induce a poor shot from self-defence, or to intimidate the batsmen, making him less likely to play forward to the next few deliveries for fear of injury. These tactics have long been an accepted part of cricket. In the modern game, batsmen usually wear helmets and heavy padding, so that being struck by the ball only rarely results in significant injury—though it is nevertheless often painful, sometimes causing concussion or fractures. Baseball batters wear helmets, but they are unsecured and lack the "cage" since only one side of the head/face is exposed. Catchers typically wear a helmet with a cage or protective bars. An equivalent ball to striking the batter in baseball would be a beamer, where the ball hits the batman's upper body area without bouncing first. These are rare and usually caused by the ball slipping out of the top of the bowler's hand. The even rarer intentional beamer provokes strong reaction from batsman and crowd alike. The umpire is authorized to take disciplinary action in such instances. The bowler is generally given a first warning, and is dismissed from the game if the offence is repeated.
There is a major difference in the way in which different bowlers or pitchers contribute to a single game. In baseball, a single pitcher starts the game, and makes every pitch until a point where the coach replaces the tiring pitcher with a relief pitcher. Replaced pitchers cannot return to pitch again in the same game (unless they are shuttled to another position in the field and thus stay in the lineup, a move rarely done in the major leagues), and a succession of pitchers may come into the game in sequence until it ends. In cricket, multiple bowlers begin the game, with those not actively bowling spending time as fielders. Bowlers alternate bowlingovers of six balls each, moving to fielding positions to rest before returning to bowl again later in the game. A bowler will usually bowl for a 'spell' of several (alternate) overs, and will generally bowl the entire spell from the same end of the pitch. A second bowler will bowl the overs missed by the first, from the other end of the pitch, for his own spell. Although moving a pitcher to a fielding position and returning him to pitch later in the game is legal in baseball, it is a rarely used and potentially risky strategy, as the pitcher may be unprepared to play another position.
The terms "bowling" and "pitching", as words, both denote underarm deliveries, as were once required in both games. The rules for delivery were also initially very similar. Once overhand deliveries were permitted in the respective sports, and pitchers were compelled to toe the pitching rubber instead of throwing from anywhere within the "pitcher's box", the actions of bowling and pitching diverged significantly.
The "wide" in cricket and the "ball" in baseball both derive from the concept of a "fair" delivery, i.e. a delivery that the batter or batsman has a fair chance of making contact with his bat. While there is no sharply defined "strike zone" in cricket as there is in baseball, in both cases the umpire must judge whether the ball was delivered fairly. Both the "wide" and the "ball" result in a "penalty". In cricket, a single run is charged. In baseball, a ball is called, and if a pitcher gives up four balls the batter is awarded first base. In extreme circumstances, a wide or ball could lead to a cricket match or baseball game respectively being decided.
[edit]Running
Running plays a much larger role in baseball because of the low scoring, because they must run much further in order to score, because runners may remain in play (that is, on the bases) without scoring, and because baserunners can advance to the next base before the ball is hit again (steal the base) as soon as the ball is live. Base stealing often requires sliding, in which the runner throws himself to the ground to avoid both being tagged and overrunning the base. The runner may also deliberately slide into the fielder at the base he is trying to steal to keep him from catching the ball or to disrupt a double play. At home plate the runner often will simply, and legally, run into a catcher who is blocking the baseline but who does not have the ball (a defensive player may not impede the runner unless he has the ball or is in the process of catching it).
The equivalent in cricket is almost impossible because the bowler is next to the runner, and in fact used to be able to mankad him if he strayed out of his crease; nowadays the batsman can leave the crease when the bowler's back foot touches the ground during his delivery action without risk of being 'Mankaded'. Tactical running in cricket rarely strays beyond the consideration of "can I make it to the other end before the ball does". One exception of this is towards the end of a limited overs game, where a batsman would sacrifice his wicket in order to allow the better batsman to remain on strike, usually in the last few balls. While in baseball, steals, sacrificial running, forces, double plays, intimidation, and physical contact enter into the equation.
Making contact with a fielder, as baserunners often do, would be unsportsmanlike in cricket, and unnecessary, as play stops when a single wicket is taken. Occasionally a cricket runner will dive over the crease, but in baseball this is a regular occurrence, as players are frequently forced to run even when their chances are slim.
Since a team almost always scores fewer runs in a baseball game than its number of outs, a baserunner will frequently take risks attempting to advance an extra base or score a run, resulting in close plays at a base. In cricket, since the number of runs scored is much greater than the number of wickets taken in a match, a batsman would be very foolish to risk getting run out in an attempt to score an extra run without a very high expected chance of success. In general, cricket batsmen are run out due to exceptional fielding, poor judgment, or a combination of both. In baseball, runners are often out not of their own accord - they are simply forced out.
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