12/21/24
May 06, 2014
SportsFilter: The Tuesday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 10:38 AM on May 06, 2014
Ruth is supposed to have told Bradman: "I'll try this cricket business. Maybe it's my game." Ruth did, eventually. He came to England in the winter of 1935, and played a little cricket when he was in London. He struggled while he was taking an orthodox guard, so he switched back to his baseball stance and started walloping some net-bowlers to all parts.
Is there anything with his "baseball stance" that would make him a bad cricketer? Does he have to take an "othordox guard" stance? And is "walloping some net-bowlers to all parts" a good thing?
It sounds like he did okay after he reverted to his normal batting stance, but the quote under his picture was: Babe Ruth, left, and Don Bradman once watched baseball together but Ruth struggled in an informal attempt to play cricket.
posted by grum@work at 12:21 PM on May 06, 2014
Interim Manchester United manager Ryan Giggs brought himself on tonight against Hull and set up the final goal of the game, scored by Robin van Persie, then had a long-range free kick tipped over the bar.
United have one game left and if he doesn't score, it'll be the first Premier League season ever without a Giggs goal.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 04:36 PM on May 06, 2014
Is there anything with his "baseball stance" that would make him a bad cricketer?
Not necessarily. Provided you can get your bat down in time when someone yorks you at 160 kmh, then there's nothing outright wrong with it. Graham Gooch used to have a stance with a high bat lift, (though backwards, not side on like baseball), and came out of it with almost 9,000 Test runs.
I'd have to wonder whether the way you hold a baseball bat would allow you to play anything through the off side though. You'd have to do some weird wrist contortion to get the bat down and then turned, and I could see you'd end up trying to hit everything behind you, into the leg side.
I suspect, today, anyone using a baseball stance would be found out quickly, with full deliveries hitting the ground up near the batsman's feet and lots of outs by LBW.
is "walloping some net-bowlers to all parts" a good thing?
Almost. You could translate that to hitting some warm up pitchers out of the park. They wouldn't be the first line bowlers, but you still have to hit them.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 05:35 PM on May 06, 2014
Is there anything with his "baseball stance" that would make him a bad cricketer?
What everyone else said, and adding that around two thirds of all Test cricket strokes are defensive, i.e. the batsman is not trying to score runs. Defensive strokes (forward and backward) are the first thing you learn when you pick up a bat.
While on the subject (try and stop me!), another thing drilled into all junior cricketers, and which has become a description for someone who is honest and open is "to play a straight bat". Which means straight up and down.
/But the good thing for baseballers crossing over to cricket is you still get to run on foul balls.
posted by owlhouse at 08:56 PM on May 06, 2014
Also, why Fulham got relegated.
posted by owlhouse at 09:30 PM on May 06, 2014
posted by tommybiden at 10:24 PM on May 06, 2014
Is there anything with his "baseball stance" that would make him a bad cricketer?
When I worked in Egypt some years ago, our slow pitch softball team had a young fellow from Turks and Caicos who had never played baseball or softball, but was a pretty good cricketer. His fielding skills were excellent, but watching him at bat trying to make contact while executing some of his cricket footwork could be comical. Still, when he did make contact, he hit some screamers. One of the things that worked against him was that he would frequently make contact while out of the batter's box. He worked on a more conventional batting stance and ultimately became pretty good on the field.
posted by Howard_T at 02:49 PM on May 07, 2014
Cricket and baseball cross over. An update featuring Babe Ruth, Bradman, Disney and South Korea.