Game Day: Thursday, July 30th

The smell of Indian food is wafting through the air.  There are more Indians, from India, here than there are Native Americans.  Send us your poor, your needy, your hungry but they all come with stacks of cash and they own every hotel and convenience store in the country?  

I'm unsure about them.  I asked an Indian at the liquor store the other day if he was following the World Cup.  He wasn't interested.  I asked him if he liked baseball.  He had no clue.  I asked him if he liked cricket.  He liked cricket.  That is the sport in India.

I have never given it much of a chance to be honest.  It looks like a game that you'd play in your back yard as a kid.  Running back and forth from pole to pole.  

The bats are flat like paddles.  The pitchers are called bowlers.  They get a running start and bounce them in.  If they crash the pole the batter is out.  In that way the batter is a defender.  

Games, I have learned, can last for days.  The longest game in history was played for over twelve days.  43 hours and 16 minutes.  South Africa led England 696-654.  The official game was a draw because it wasn't entirely finished but the English team had to return home.

What an epic game.  

I'm uncertain of the rules but it isn't entirely like baseball.

Interesting game.  Has there ever been a cricket player to make it in Major League Baseball?  There hasn't been a single professional cricketer make it into MLB.

A player named Liam Plunkett played professional indie ball for the Oakland Ballers and that is as close as any cricketer has come to the big leagues.

Sort of an oddity.  The games have their similarities but the skillsets are so wildly different.  

Have any MLB players made the transition to professional cricket?  Not a single one.  Blue Jays' farmhand Boomer Collins tried to learn the game but no report on whether or not he has had any success.  I watched some highlights of his.  He looked like a spot on cricketer.  I imagine he went on to have a very successfuly career with cricket.  From what I saw on the highlights, he could swing that cricket bat well.

Oddly no report on any professional cricket success.  Seems Collins wound up in Dallas and their isn't any professional cricket in Dallas.  

That's it for Game Day today.  It's a break from the mundanity of the baseball season.  The trade deadline is so all encompassing and so very thwarting in some sense.  

I'm taking a pass on the pick tonight after yesterday's loss.  It will be a very busy weekend in MLB with the trade deadline approaching.  I'm looking forward to seeing how it all plays out.  I'll be back tomorrow with a post and possibly a pick too.  Stay tuned.

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