Page:A "Bawl" for American Cricket.djvu/18

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10
COMPARING BASE BALL WITH CRICKET.

of these professional experts. The organizations are sustained by capitalists, whose investments depend upon the character of the games, and the system has given it an impetus which has placed it in the front rank of American sport, and brought the play up to the highest standard. Cricket on the contrary is played in America almost exclusively by amateurs, who deserve the highest praise for the manner in which they have upheld American Cricket, especially when it is remembered that tneir English adversaries, inherit their "national" game from their fathers, grand-fathers, and great-grand-fathers, and that each generation of cricketers takes up and improves upon the play of its predecessor. Many clubs employ "professionals" as teachers, who not withstanding their superior cricket are always excldued from "trophy" matches.

This comparison we believe will interest enquirers after facts, while those whose vision is obscured by a total eclipse of either game, will "skip" to something more interesting. The "base" in the National game corresponds with the "run" in cricket, and is ninety feet long; the distance between wickets is sixty-six feet, but between creases which is the length of a run, the distance is fifty-eight feet, or thirty-two feet shorter than a base. The average runner of a "base" must consume enough additional time to cover the added distance. Supposing that two and one-half seconds is required by the runner of the base, only one and one-half seconds is consumed by the cricketer in making his run. This difference in "time" means a preponderating advantage to the fielder upon the diamond, and a corresponding one to the batsman in cricket. The public, chiefly for this reason, has pronounced upon the sloth of cricketers, and the rapidity