1859.26

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NY Herald Weighs Base Ball against Cricket

Salience Noteworthy
Tags Newspaper Coverage
Location Greater New York City
City/State/Country: NYC, NY, United States
Game Cricket, Base Ball
Immediacy of Report Contemporary
Text

A detailed comparison of base ball and cricket appeared in the 

Some fragments:

"[C]ricket could never become a national sport in America - it is too slow, intricate and plodding a game for our go-ahead people."

"The home base [in base ball] is marked by a flat circular iron plate, painted white. The pitcher's point . . . is likewise designated by a circular iron plate painted white . . . ."

"The art of pitching consists in throwing it with such force that the batsman has not time to wind his bat to hit it hard, or so close to his person that he can only hit it with a feeble blow."

"[The baseball is] not so heavy in proportion to its size as a cricket ball."

"Sometimes the whole four bases are made in one run."

"The only points in which a the base ball men would have any advantage over the cricketers, in a game of base ball, are two - first, in the batting, which is overhand, and done with a narrower bat, and secondly, in the fact that the bell being more lively, hopping higher, and requiring a different mode of catching. But the superior activity and practice of the [cricket] Eleven in fielding would amply make up for this."

It occupies about two hours to play a game of base ball - two days to play a game of cricket." "[B]ase ball is better adapted for popular use than cricket. It is more lively and animated, gives more exercise, and is more rapidly concluded. Cricket seems very tame and dull after looking at a game of base ball.

"It is suited to the aristocracy, who have leisure and love ease; base ball is suited to the people . . . . "

In the American game the ins and outs alternate by quick rotation, like our officials, and no man can be out of play longer than a few minutes."

 

Sources

New York Herald, October 16, 1859, page 1, columns 3-5. 

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Submitted by George Thompson email to 19cBB 3/1/2007



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