12/21/24
February 27, 2004
From the cricket field to Dodger stadium?: Is this the Dodger's new scouting technique under Depodestra? More here.
posted by jasonspaceman to baseball at 02:21 PM - 5 comments
Darren Bennett's story of making the transition from Australian rules football to the NFL is pretty fun: Bennett is a former Australian Rules Football star who spent 12 seasons as one of the continent’s top footballers, competing for the East Fremantle Sharks, the West Coast Eagles and the Melbourne Demons. Surprisingly, the salaries for even the top players in the AFL didn’t quite measure up to NFL standards. Bennett held a full-time job as an employment officer and nursery owner during his playing days in Australia. Bennett got his first exposure to punting an NFL football during an Aussie Rules exhibition game in Toronto. His Melbourne squad was playing a game at Toronto’s SkyDome when Hank Ilesic, a former Chargers punter who was playing for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League, joined Bennett for a few punts at halftime. Faring reasonably well, Bennett purchased a football of his own. As Bennett tells the story, he kept the football in his car and as he drove back home in Australia, he and a mate would occasionally stop and practice their punting. A short time later, Bennett used two round-trip plane tickets that he won in a long-ball kicking contest for he and Rosemary, to spend their honeymoon on the West Coast of the United States. It was during their honeymoon that the Bennetts contacted the Chargers and arranged for a tryout. It was an inauspicious debut for Bennett in his first attempted punt before the Chargers’ brass. The very first snap from long snapper Sam Anno hit Bennett square in the nose. Unfazed, Bennett regrouped and by the end of the audition, the Chargers had seen enough to make him an offer. It didn’t take long for the Chargers to see a return on their investment. Bennett set a team record with a 44.7-yard average in his rookie season and was rewarded with his first trip to the Pro Bowl. Random thought #1: I'm surprised more talent poaching like this hasn't occurred. MLB recruits players primarily from the US and the Caribbean, the NBA has American and European players, the NFL is pretty much entirely Americans. Futbol (and to a lesser extent, hockey) is the only sport taking advantage of a global talent pool. Random thought #2: If more talent poaching occurred, would the "World Champion" title given to the "World" Series winner begin to apply?
posted by dusted at 03:39 PM on February 27, 2004
We are seeing it - rugby in New Zealand is starting to lose 17 18 year old players who are being bought up by US American Football teams for tryouts. On the one hand, it's hard to blame the kids (as with the big soccer teams, the money's unreal just for a tryout), but you've got to wonder if they really understand what they're getting themselves into, given that for most of them it'll be their only payday. And the "World" series would still only look "world" to me if you were looking at actual international teams. This would make it even less likely, since the teams are plundering the resources that might be used to make up said teams.
posted by rodgerd at 01:48 PM on February 28, 2004
Duval, 20, ... Timed with a laser gun, Duval pitched a baseball at 137 kilometres an hour, and Kelly says he has got great potential. Um.. a 20-year-old with no baseball experience or proven record of excellence, who throws a whopping... lemme get out the calculator here... 85 miles per hour. Color me unimpressed. Packing my groceries and pumping my gas are likely legions of 20-somethings who probably could throw into the low 80's in high school or college baseball- for all the good it does them now. There's a lot more to even a brief appearance in the Show than 85mph. Sidd Finch, this ain't.
posted by hincandenza at 06:32 PM on February 28, 2004
Someone, Hal, who doesn't play baseball and didn't spend his youth learning how to pitch. Cricket bowling techniques are entirely different to baseball ones. Although bowling that speed in cricket would only make you an average fast medium bowler, since real cricket quicks are typically in the 140 - 150 km/h range.
posted by rodgerd at 01:33 PM on March 01, 2004
Rumor has it, DePodesta is working on a new book called 'Cricket Ball.'