baseball and cricket

It's eight or so on a Friday night here in New York City, and I'm getting ready to watch the New York Mets take on the St. Louis Cardinals in the National League Championship Series (phew, quite a mouthful). Over the years, I've heard many, many, comparisons made between baseball and cricket. Here is a particularly immature one that I wrote back in 1990:

"For me, the funniest thing aboout baseball are the base coaches..they stand there, tugging their noses and cheeks, spitting away, grabbing their crotches and tell a base runner when to run and whatever...gee, I guess the base runners are too stupid to look around and figure out when its a good time to run or not...and do't barrage me with lectures on the supposed complexity of the game..I'm just saying it looks funny. I can just imagine running coaches in cricket..I dont think Asif Iqbal would ever have managed a single in his life if these gentlemen had been around....And thank god, we dont have any of this macho bullshit with batters charging the pitcher after being hit by a pitch..what a bunch of wimps..!"

I was much younger back then. Back in the good ol' rec.sport.cricket days. Now, I wish cricket journalism could match this wonderful analysis of Albert Pujol's hitting (go to the article and click on the graphic section titled "Double Trouble" half-way down). Now, its possible to admire the skill of baseball pitchers, fielders, batters. I've grown up. Or so I'd like to think. Interestingly, I wrote that little rant above after three years of baseball watching. Gee, I was dumb. I've got more to write on this but the game is about to start. Catch youse later.