Comparison of baseball and cricket

Baseball and cricket are the best-known members of a family of related bat-and-ball games. Both have fields that are 400 feet (120 m) or more in diameter between their furthest endpoints, offensive players who can hit a thrown/"bowled" ball out of the field and run between safe areas to score runs (points) at the risk of being gotten out (forced off the field of play by the opposing team and thus left unable to score further runs during that play), and have a major game format lasting about 3 hours.
Despite their similarities, the two sports also have many differences in play and in strategy; for example, far more runs are scored in a cricket match compared to a baseball game. A comparison between baseball and cricket can be instructive to followers of either sport, since the differences help to highlight nuances particular to each game.
Bat-and-ball games, in general, are sports in which one team (the fielding team) has possession of the ball and delivers it to a member of the other team (the batting team), who tries to hit it. The two opposing teams take turns playing these two distinct roles, which are continuous during a specified interval.
In both cricket and baseball, the players of one team attempt to score points known as runs by hitting a ball with a bat and running, while the members of the other team field the ball in an attempt to prevent scoring and to put batting players out.
Once a certain number of batting players are out (different in the two sports), the teams swap roles.
How the safe havens and end of the innings work:
Other present-day bat-and-ball games include softball, stickball, rounders (both English and Irish forms), stoolball, pesäpallo or Finnish baseball, punchball, kickball, and British baseball.
Baseball is played in a quadrant of fair territory between foul lines, with most play only occurring from balls hit into the fair territory.
In contrast, Test and limited overs cricket is played on a field with no foul areas.
The area from which the ball is thrown:
The release point of the ball and where it reaches the batter:
Thus the horizontal distance, from release of the ball by the pitcher/bowler to its arrival at the batter/batsman, is similar in both sports.
Another difference between the two sports involves the condition and replacement of the ball as a match progresses.
A significant difference between baseball and cricket is that in baseball, because the batting team's players are forced to advance around the bases, the fielding team must make outs in order to prevent scoring. A batter who hits the ball into fair territory, which is the main part of the field, is obligated to run to the first base, and since players are obligated to abandon the base they are on to run to the next base whenever there is a player forced to run to their base, any player from the batting team who is on a base will eventually either reach home plate to score or be put out, unless the half inning ends sooner because three offensive players are put out. By contrast, cricket players are never forced by rule to run or try to score.
A significant difference between the fielding team in baseball and limited overs (one-day) cricket is that in one-day forms of cricket, the fielding team does not have to get anyone on the batting team out in order to switch sides or win the game, since a team's turn to bat automatically ends after they receive a maximum number of legal deliveries (a baseball team must make three outs in each of the nine regulation innings, and can potentially play extra innings in the case of a tie, meaning they must make at least 27 outs to win). Because of this, cricket fielding teams can use strategies unavailable to baseball teams that involve focusing more on minimizing the number of runs they concede per delivery (known as lowering the batting team's run rate) than on trying to get anyone out.
The main difference in fielding in the two sports is that even though a cricket ball is harder and heavier than a baseball, generally fielders in cricket are not permitted to use gloves (except in exceptional circumstances, and when approved by both umpires) or external leg guards.
This means that the risk of hand injury due to the impact of the ball is far higher in cricket. Also, especially in Test cricket, it is common for several fielders to be stationed close to the bat (slips, short leg, silly point, and similar positions) since the likelihood and value of dismissing a batsman by a catch in a close fielding position is higher.
Importance of runs in both sports:
Baseball players often need to throw immediately after catching a struck or thrown ball (for example, the double play), while this is unnecessary in cricket as the ball is deemed "dead" when a dismissal takes place (An exception occurs when there is a free hit ball: catches do not get batsmen out in these scenarios, so fielders may have to attempt run outs after catching the ball).
Left-handers and right-handers in fielding:
Body contact between runner and fielder is frequent in baseball, particularly at home plate. This is driven to a large extent by the manner in which a runner is put out. In both sports, rules prohibit interfering with runners.
Rules around "fake fielding":
Fielders choosing which players they want to try to get out:
How fielders behave near the field boundary, and how they deal with deliveries that get past the fielder behind the batter:
Fielding position naming scheme:
The different ways of making the ball move unpredictably:
The ways in which the ball's design itself interacts with the movement:
From where and how the ball is delivered:
Speed of the ball:
One main difference, however, is that the ball in cricket is harder and heavier in weight.
Categorization of bowlers and pitchers:
For example, there are many different variations on how the pitch is delivered, including the conventional overhand in which the ball is thrown from the 12 o'clock position, 3/4 styles (with the arm moving towards the plate between 12 and 3 o'clock), as well as the less common sidearm (3 o'clock arm angle, compare roundarm bowling in cricket) and 'submarine' (below 3 o'clock, compare underarm bowling in cricket) deliveries. The submarine pitch is rare, and a pitcher who throws in this way usually has a 'submariner' attached to his name or description. Similarly, there are many kinds of pitches thrown, including the fastball, curve ball, slider, and knuckleball. Capable knuckleballers are extremely rare and are usually described by this skill first.
Matchups between left-handed batters and right-handed pitchers, or vice versa:
The prevalence of balls thrown at the batter's body:
What height the ball may reach the batter at, and how this plays into the possible deliveries:
There is a major difference in the way in which different bowlers or pitchers contribute to a single game.
The terms "bowling" and "pitching", as words, both denote underarm deliveries, as were once required in both games. The rules for delivery were also initially very similar. Once overhand deliveries were permitted in the respective sports, and pitchers were compelled to toe the pitching rubber instead of throwing from anywhere within the "pitcher's box", the actions of bowling and pitching diverged significantly.
Penalties for bad or unfair delivery:
A walk will only score a run directly if the bases are already loaded, forcing the runner at third base to advance to home (known as "walking in a run"); otherwise the threat is merely of another runner reaching base instead of making an out. However, since runs are scored so much more frequently in cricket, the occasional wide, scoring a run directly, is not taken too seriously, although the extra delivery can be of vital significance toward the end of a match. In both games, a wide or a ball can be the decisive factor in winning a match or a game.
The number of pitchers/bowlers on a team:
The prevalence of batters occasionally doing some pitching, even when they are weak at it:
The way that each delivery has an impact in advancing the game:
One of the main differences between baseball and Test cricket is the primary intent of the batsman.
Defensive technique and area for legal deliveries in cricket:
The amount of "place hitting" in both games:
Which directions a batter may be incentivized to hit the ball in:
The games emphasise power hitting to different degrees.
Facing a delivery just outside the batter's reach:
Batter's ability to move around before and as they hit:
How the field boundary in each sport influences the way in which batters try to hit the ball out of the field:
Whether a player who got out can participate further in the game:
The safe havens:
What counts as contact with the safe haven, for the purposes of making a player "safe":
How the ball is used to get a runner out:
How runs are scored through running:
When a player of the batting team is legally allowed to run in the attempt of scoring:
Running plays a much larger role in baseball because of the low scoring; also, players on the batting team must run much further to score a run, because runners may remain in play (that is, on the bases) without scoring, and because baserunners can advance to the next base before the ball is hit again (steal the base) as soon as the ball is live. Base stealing often requires sliding, in which the runner throws himself to the ground to avoid being tagged or overrunning the base. The runner may also deliberately slide into the fielder at the base he is trying to steal to keep him from catching the ball or to disrupt a double play. At home plate the runner often will simply, and legally, run into a catcher who is blocking the baseline but who does not have the ball (a defensive player may not impede the runner unless he has the ball or is in the process of catching it).
The equivalent in cricket is almost impossible because the bowler is next to the non-striker, and in fact is able to mankad him if he strayed out of his crease (or simply cancel his runup, rendering the ball dead); in addition, it is legally considered unfair play for the batsmen to steal runs during the bowler's runup. Tactical running in cricket rarely strays beyond the consideration of "can I make it to the other end before the ball does". One exception of this is towards the end of a closely fought limited overs game, where a batsman (normally a tail-ender) would sacrifice his wicket to allow the better batsman to remain on strike, usually in the last few balls. While in baseball, steals, sacrificial running, forces, double plays, intimidation, and physical contact enter into the equation.
Since a team almost always scores fewer runs in a baseball game than its number of outs, a baserunner will frequently take risks attempting to advance an extra base or to score a run, resulting in close plays at a base.
In baseball, there is an ambiguity as to whether a tie goes to the runner or not; that is, if the fielding team executes an action meant to put the runner out at the same moment that the runner reaches a safe haven, is the runner out or not?
In both sports, there is one umpire per safe haven, and additional umpire(s) to handle technology replays. In baseball, the umpire nearest the pitcher stands behind the batter, whereas in cricket they stand behind the bowler.
Cricket uses the Umpire Decision Review System (DRS for short), while there is Instant replay in Major League Baseball. One major difference is that, ignoring the umpires, DRS can only be invoked by players, while instant replay can only be invoked by the team managers.
A direct comparison is difficult since:
In cricket, test matches and certain domestic first class matches can last up to five days, with scheduled breaks each day for lunch and tea, giving three sessions of play each day. Full length games, for example between English counties or between Australian states, have a similar format to Test matches, but either three or four days are allowed. The limited overs versions of the sport usually last up to 7 hours. Twenty20 has innings of twenty overs per team and generally takes around 3 hours.
One Day Internationals and Twenty20 cricket, with their inherent limit on the number of fair deliveries, do not have an exact equivalent in baseball. The closest comparison would be games that have a pre-set number of innings shorter than the standard 9 (as with the second game of a doubleheader at some levels) or a pre-set time limit of some kind, such as a curfew restriction, or in the case of one of baseball's cousins, recreational softball, a pre-set length of the game, such as one hour. In winter ball Caribbean leagues (and the MLB during the coronavirus) doubleheaders are commonly pre-set to last 7 innings instead of 9, except if they are necessary as tiebreakers; 100-ball cricket can be thought of as a similar shortening relative to T20 cricket's game length.
In both sports, when one team has completed all of their turns at bat, this entitles the other team (if they are currently batting) to automatically win at the moment that their score total surpasses the initial team's total. (This is known as the winning team having chased down their "target" number of runs in cricket, and as the winning team having achieved a walk-off in baseball.)
The possibility of a result:
Ability to predict result before end of game:
A wide array of factors affect both games (from composition of the pitch or field soil to weather conditions, wind, and moisture) and numerous strategies in both games can be employed to exploit these factors.
A major element of strategy in these sports is the condition of the ball.
Various factors affecting the movement of a cricket ball:
In cricket, since the batsmen can hit the ball with greater variation and different objectives, the field placements are more important and varied.
In baseball, although only the positions of pitcher and catcher are prescribed by the rules, fielders' positions are dictated closely by custom, and shifts in fielders' positions according to circumstance are less dramatic; the strike zone and smaller angle of fair territory limit the usefulness of some strategies which cricket makes available to batsmen.
However, baseball has no equivalent of cricket's close-in fielders, because it is impractical to have fielders so close to the bat as they would have virtually no chance of latching onto a ball travelling so fast. It is possible to place a close-in fielder to catch a bunt, but this practice is almost never followed except in specialised circumstances such as a pitcher being forced to bat late in a game, with less than two outs and the opportunity to drive in a run. The team's best chance to score in such a situation may be to sacrifice bunt and may warrant the first or third baseman playing halfway up the line to cut off the run at home.
In both sports, strategy varies with the game situation.
Another difference between baseball and cricket strategy is the importance of sacrifice plays in baseball. These are plays in which a batter deliberately hits in a particular way or in a particular direction to advance runner(s) at the expense of himself getting out.
The essential action in baseball is either (for the offence) to advance runners around the bases or (for the defence) to halt that advance.
Regarding the role of time in the result:
The condition of the playing strip (the pitch) in cricket is of vital significance as, unlike baseball, the ball more often than not is deliberately bounced on the pitch before reaching the batsman. While in baseball, playing conditions between different stadia are much the same (except for perhaps small differences in the dimensions of the field, whether the outfield is fast or slow, and if the field is grass or artificial turf), the physical characteristics of the cricket pitch can vary over the course of the game, or from one field to another, or from one part of the world to another.
Baseball parks are also not completely uniform, however many of the variations in playing conditions in baseball also arise in cricket.
Many stadiums have idiosyncratic features – for example, the short right field and high left field wall (called the Green Monster) at Fenway Park, the former hill and flagpole in the outfield (Tal's Hill) at Daikin Park, or numerous "porches" (parts of the grandstands hanging over the outfield, such as the "Short Porch in Right" at Yankee Stadium) which allow short home runs. There is an equivalent for this in cricket, where the placement of the pitch may render one perpendicular boundary significantly shorter than the other. For example, in a particular game, the leg-side boundary may be 15 feet closer to the batsman than the off-side boundary. Such a boundary can then be targeted by batmen in search of quick runs.
The baseball behaves differently in those stadiums with artificial turf as well.
On the whole, though, these variations do not produce effects as great as variations in cricket pitches, with one arguable exception being Coors Field.
In general, the condition of the pitch is a much greater factor in cricket than in baseball, while at the professional level stadium shape and quirks permanently built into the playing surface are greater factors in baseball than in cricket. Note that in amateur cricket pitches may have considerable variation in shape and may even incorporate obstacles (like tree roots), but this is not considered desirable or ideal. In baseball, familiarity with distinct field layout is considered to be an important part of having home-field advantage.
The roles of individual players in the batting order are strikingly similar.
Sacrifice plays:
How the fielding team can negate the influence of a skilled batter:
Here are two examples of the scoreboard from one of the sports transferred to the other, to demonstrate what types of information both convey (the examples are designed for situations where there is greater ambiguity):
Notation: "xxx" means that a piece of information isn't transferred to the other sport, while "?" indicates that a piece of information can't be retrieved.
Both games have a long history of using a vast array of statistics. The scorers are directed by the hand signals of an umpire. Every play or delivery is logged, and from the log, or scoresheet, is derived a summary report.
Henry Chadwick (1824–1908) was an English-born American sportswriter, pioneer baseball statistician and historian, often called the "father of baseball". Before he first came across organised baseball in 1856, he was a cricket reporter for The New York Times and player of cricket and similar ball games such as rounders.
In baseball, questioning of the validity and utility of conventional baseball statistics has led to the creation of the field of sabermetrics, which assesses alternatives to conventional statistics. Conclusions are sometimes drawn from inadequate samples – for example, an assertion that a batter has done poorly against a specific pitcher, when they have only faced each other a handful of times, or that a player is "clutch" due to having more success with runners in scoring position or during the late innings with rather small sample sizes.
Both sports generally have broadcasts where the camera starts by looking towards the batter from behind the pitcher as the ball is delivered.
Both sports tend to use the lulls in the game which are common to bat-and-ball games (such as breaks between outs, or overs in cricket) to present statistics.
Cricket:
Baseball:
Difference in domestic league structure:
The USA's Minor League Cricket T20 event is more akin to the baseball structure, with "regional conferences", but retains the single-match final common to cricket leagues.
Standards of sportsmanship differ.
The history of baseball's formation and rise in popularity took place in the originally more cricket-supporting societies of England and America. Predecessors of baseball were brought to America during the colonial era by immigrants from England who played games similar to rounders; at the time, cricket was significantly more popular in the United States, since it was one of the primary sports played by Anglo-American colonists. At the time, the main format of cricket was first-class cricket, in which games lasted multiple days; baseball by comparison was a game that lasted less than two hours. Because of the vast difference in the duration of the two sports and for other reasons, such as Americans' desire to have some type of national game distinct from England's games, baseball began to grow in America, especially among some of the non-English sections of society, such as among the Irish and German immigrants. Some attempts were made to nativize cricket in a way that would reduce its length and other perceived disadvantages relative to baseball; one example of this was wicket, an American variation of cricket which could be played in an afternoon, and which George Washington is known to have played with his troops during the Revolutionary War.
By the time of the Civil War, baseball had begun to overtake cricket in popularity; one reason for this was that troops during the Civil War preferred to play baseball, as it did not require a specialized playing surface like the cricket pitch. However, cricket had still been popular enough that President Abraham Lincoln had watched two American cities play each other in the sport in the years before the war. After the Civil War, baseball became a much more organized sport than cricket in America, with more money and competition available to baseball players across the country; thus, several professional cricket players switched to playing baseball, and cricket faded away in America.
In other countries that were part of the British Empire, cricket slowly emerged as the game of choice for the colonizers to spread their culture and values among the colonized. Some of the colonized people adapted to playing cricket in order to win the favor of the British, while in other cases, colonized peoples played cricket as a way of beating the British at their own sports, and thus proving themselves as equals. This helped to cement cricket as part of the national culture of several countries that later won their independence from the British.
In 2003, a new format of cricket called T20 cricket emerged which was designed to last only about three hours. By this time, the average MLB game had gone from being two hours long to about three hours long, so the two sports now had formats that were of a comparable duration. Later on, the T10 format of cricket, in which games last less than two hours, emerged at a domestic level, with leagues being started for it in several major cricket-playing countries.
Don Bradman was a famous cricket batsman who was known for his childhood drill of hitting a golf ball with a stump, which many consider to have significantly improved his hand-eye coordination. His batting average of 99.94 stands leagues above all other batsmen.
Babe Ruth is considered to be one of the best baseball batters. Babe Ruth and Don Bradman once met to discuss baseball and cricket, with Babe Ruth later trying out cricket in London, but saying he wouldn't play it professionally as it didn't pay well enough.
The South Korean national cricket team has received coaching from a former baseball player.
Both sports play an important part in the cultures of the societies in which they are popular.
Both sports are often played in the streets or in other circumstances with modified/simpler rules, and with more makeshift equipment.
The basics that are retained are:
Both cricket and baseball have street versions that are passionately played in parts of the Americas, such as bete-ombro and plaquita for cricket or streetball and Vitilla for baseball. In addition, both have a variation where players kick the ball, rather than batting it: kickball and leg cricket.