Chief of the few cricketers who throw with any of the
terrible precision of a baseball field is Hobbs. It must be borne in
mind, however, that cricket does not demand such constant throwing at
full speed as baseball does; for in cricket, as I have said, the batsman
may choose what hits he will run for, and if he chooses only the
perfectly safe ones the fieldsmen are never at high pressure. There is
also nothing in cricket quite to compare with base-stealing.
When it comes to catching, the percentage of missed catches is far
higher at cricket than at baseball; but there are good reasons for this.
One is that in baseball a glove is worn; another that in baseball all
catches come to the fieldsmen with long or sufficient notice. The
fieldsmen are all, except the catcher, in front of the batsmen; there is
nothing to compare with the unexpected nimbleness that our point and
slips have to display.
In the hypothetical contest that I have suggested, between baseballers
and cricketers, if the conditions were nominally equal and the
cricketers had to pitch like baseballers and the baseballers to use the
English bat, why then the baseballers would win handsomely.
Baseball, I fancy, will not be acclimatised in England. We had our
chance when London was full of American soldiers and we did not take it.
But we were very grateful to them for playing the game in our midst, for
the authorities were so considerate as to let them play on Sundays
(which we are never allowed to do) and I was one of those who hoped that
this might be the thin end of the wedge and Sunday cricket also be
permitted.
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