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Author Archives: rightoffthebatbook
Maintaining Calm at World Cup 2011
It’s not looking too great for “the home team”. (In baseball, the home team is the one you root for no matter which home they are visiting.) England has been playing nonstop since October, and the fatigue is showing. The … Continue reading
Posted in Cricket, England, India
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Filling in Admirably for Martin on the World Cup
Ship to shore. Ship to shore. I, Evander, “baseball nut”, will be filling in (I don’t know how admirably) for Martin over the next few days of World Cup 2011 play to report my findings. (Not to worry, serious cricket … Continue reading
Russell Crowe m.i.a. in Cricket Town USA
Writing par’ner Martin hit me with a new concept: maiden. I had foolishly asked him what “m” stood for in what us baseball fans call “the box score.” “I don’t remember this in our book….” “Evander, we just could not … Continue reading
Posted in Baseball, Cricket, England, Right Off the Bat Book, Right Off the Bat Website
Tagged Canada, Lord's, MCC, Scotland
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Beibu Rusu! Our Hearts Go out to Japan
Beibu Rusu is the Japanese form of “Babe Ruth”. The Japanese also have the sports-word pepitone. It’s a noun meaning “goof-off,” and this beau mot comes from The Chrysanthemum and the Bat by Robert Whiting. We’ve had a lot of … Continue reading
Posted in Baseball, Yankees
Tagged Babe Ruth, Japan, Joe Pepitone, Literature, New York, New York Mets, Robert Whiting
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Wordsworth and Baseball
I’m going nuts. No real baseball yet. Only puny spring-training exhibition games. Players I never heard of going at it in Grapefruit League or Cactus League cities I’ve never been to. Along with William Wordsworth (in “Tintern Abbey”) let me … Continue reading
Baby, You’re the Greatest!
The New York Times reports that Mariano Rivera made his first spring-training appearance. Twelve pitches. Nine strikes. Three out. Next! Rivera has been doing this for sixteen seasons. I cannot remember any player, at any position, so dominating the baseball … Continue reading
Posted in Baseball
Tagged Mariano Rivera, New York Times, New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners, TV Shows
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Australia Forever?
While I was watching Australia desultorily dismantle Kenya in the World Cup a stat was issued by the uninterested commentators: that the Australians’ inevitable victory would be their thirty-fourth consecutive win in the World Cup—a run that has extended over … Continue reading
All Hail Jacques Kallis
For years, the South African all-rounder Jacques Kallis has been compiling stats that would be the envy of some of the greatest batsmen who ever strode to the crease. As of today, he has scored nearly 12,000 runs in 145 … Continue reading
Posted in Cricket, South Africa
Tagged Gary Sobers, Jacques Kallis, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag
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In Praise of South Africa
I fear that I give short shrift to South Africa in Right Off the Bat. Partly this is because during the 1970s and 1980s, when I was growing to love the game of cricket, the South Africans were excluded from … Continue reading
Posted in South Africa
Tagged A. B. de Villiers, Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis, World Cup
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A Draw Versus a Tie
Some of my baseball-loving friends are still confused over the difference in cricket between a draw and a tie. So, this post is my way to try to resolve that confusion. There are three main forms of the game of … Continue reading
Right Off the Bat 