To resume the catalogue of contrast. In baseball the batsman must run
for every fair hit; in cricket he may choose which hits to run for.
In baseball a man's desire is to hit the ball in the air beyond the
fielders; in cricket, though a man would like to do this, his side is
better served if he hits every ball along the ground.
In baseball no man can have more than a very small number of hits in a
match; in cricket he can be batting for a whole day, and then again
before the match is over. There are instances of batsmen making over 400
runs before being out.
Another difference between the games is that in cricket we use a new
ball only at the beginning of a fresh inning (of which there cannot be
more than four in a match) and when each 200 runs have been scored; and
(this will astonish the American reader) when the ball is hit among the
people it is returned. I have seen such rapid voluntary surrenders at
baseball very seldom, and so much of a "fan" have I become that the
spectacle has always been accompanied in my breast by pain and contempt.
I had the gratification of receiving from the burly John McGraw an
autograph ball as a souvenir of a visit to the Polo Ground. I put it in
my pocket hurriedly, conscious of the risk I ran among a nation of ball-
stealers in possessing such a trophy; and I got away with it. But I am
sure that had it been a ball hit out of the ground by the mighty "Babe"
Ruth, which--recovering it by some supernatural means--he had handed to
me in public, I should not have emerged alive, or, if alive, not in the
ball's company.
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