All Hail Sri Lanka!

Posted on December 29, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook

Sri Lanka has had a bad 2011. How bad? Well, as a commentator on espncricinfo.com puts it:

Sri Lanka have hurtled from one low to another after a sizzling run to the World Cup final. Their board ran into losses, their Twenty20 league was forced to be scrapped. The cash-strapped board couldn’t pay the players, and one defeat followed another. They hurtled to an embarrassing loss in Cardiff, in a Test where it rained for more time than there was play, and proceeded to lose every single Test and ODI [One Day International] series they played in the year. They took a hammering of epic proportions in the first Test here [in South Africa].

And yet they’ve just won their first ever Test match in South Africa, comprehensively beating the Proteas, mainly due to the titanic mental strength and discipline of Kumar Sangakkara and nine wickets from Herath Herath. As the commentator notes, it caps a fantastic year for Test cricket of all kinds, showing that, for subtlety and excitement in equal turns, you can’t beat the longest form of the game.

Posted in Cricket, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Test Cricket | Leave a comment

What Do I Put on the Kindle I Got for Christmas?

Posted on December 28, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook

It’s a question we know you’re asking. Well, the book on which this site is premised, Right Off the Bat, is available in a Kindle as well as print edition, with over two hundred and fifty hyperlinks that will take you directly to a site or an image or a video that depict just what we’re talking about. We like to think we describe the great West Indian fast bowler Michael Holding’s bowling action in lyrical terms that summon up Shakespeare at his most eloquent. But why not see for your self, and wax your own poetical?

Posted in Cricket, Right Off the Bat Book, West Indies | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Hemispheric Pressure

Posted on December 28, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook
Michael Clarke

Michael Clarke, the Australian captain, searches for victory.

While our baseball friends in the U.S. huddle around their stoves and await the first sprigs of spring training to appear in February, cricket lovers are enjoying a sun-drenched, beer-fueled banquet of competition in the southern hemisphere. After an inconclusive (if competitive) series of matches against Australia, South Africa are now playing the well-matched Sri Lanka in South Africa. South Africa are currently one up in the three match series. Meanwhile across the Indian ocean, the Australians (after a fairly indifferent showing against New Zealand) are battling India, in a much anticipated battle between aging titans. This time last year, Australia was being dismantled by England, a feat that England repeated six months later against India. So, both Australia and India are wounded and have something to prove. England meanwhile (newly named BBC Team of the Year) next month go to the Middle East to take on a Pakistan side that had a very successful 2011, and shows every sign of having put its tawdry and torrid 2010 behind it. So all you baseball fans: Turn your hungry eyes further south than Florida and enjoy the feast of bat and ball taking place around the Tropic of Capricorn.

Posted in Australia, Cricket, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Test Cricket | Leave a comment

Say What?

Posted on December 27, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook

Rightoffthebatbook.com’s friend Ron Kaplan has wondered whether cricket, like baseball, has coined expressions that have become commonplaces in non-sporting contexts. The answer is, “Of course!” Protestations to the contrary made by fans of either game, baseball and cricket aren’t unique—let alone uniquely superior. True, one might only ever step up to the plate to hit one out of the park in baseball; but where else but cricket does one confront a sticky wicket or is stumped with a difficult question? One can, perhaps, talk “inside baseball” if one wants to be exclusive and singular; but how better to define the unacceptable by saying “it’s not cricket.” Someone in love might only make it to first base in baseball but might be bowled over or hit for six in cricket. The games are sufficiently different from each other that a list of equivalent phrases is impossible, but both sports have indeed buried themselves into the argots of their respective cultures.

Posted in Baseball, Cricket | 4 Comments

A Different Ball Game

Posted on December 27, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook

Imran Khan: Appealing to voters

You’d think baseball players and their cricketing brethren would make good politicians: after all, baseball’s lingo suggests bravado and success (“stepping up to the plate,” “hitting a home run,” “knocking it out of the park”) and cricket’s patois offers intimations of probity and decency (“plays with a straight bat,” and “hit right down the line”). Even for those who like their politics a little more rough-and-tumble, cricket and baseball have their spinners and curveballs, and one can bunt, or sacrifice, or drive oneself into a commanding position. Yet, apart from the erstwhile senator from Kentucky (and hall-of-fame pitcher) Jim Bunning, few baseball players have made it to first base in U.S. politics.

Cricket, on the other hand, has been blessed or cursed by a welter of cricketers who have decided that their undoubted ability on the field of play ensures them success at the ballot box—especially in countries with a small population or where the sport your playing is one your country happens to be excellent at. All-rounder Sanath Jayasuriya is currently in the Sri Lankan parliament; Learie Constantine (who was ultimately elevated to the baronetcy) entered parliament in Trinidad and became a minister; the fiercesome fast bowler Wes Hall became a stalwart of Barbadian politics and was himself knighted; the opening batsman Roy Fredericks was appointed minister of sport in Guyana; and Desmond Haynes, another opening batsman, was a senator in Barbados.

Nowhere, however, is politics and cricket more combustible or exciting than in Pakistan. For fifteen years, the supremely talented and charismatic all-rounder Imran Khan has been trying to find a place for himself and his party. It now looks as though he’s making some headway, with his socially conservative and anti-corruption (and anti-American-drone-attacks) brand of politics. Khan, a natural aristocrat with a last name that speaks of leadership, is a former playboy, who speaks Oxford-accented English and yet is a popular hero to many Pakistanis. We here at the studiously apolitical blog cannot vouch for his political position, but we can gape in awe at his incredible achievements on the field of play.

 

Posted in Baseball, Cricket | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Support Wanderers United

Posted on December 26, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook

Cricket close to Right Off the Bat HQ in Brooklyn!

I (Evander) stumbled into Wanderers United, a terrific-looking 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization devoted to all things cricket. Games are played in Marine Park and elsewhere in South Brooklyn. By the way, Wanderers United is on the lookout for new cricketers!

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Fire in Babylon

Posted on December 22, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook

Taking the heat

I (Martin) finally got to see Fire in Babylon, the 2010 documentary on the evolution and triumph of the great West Indies sides that dominated world cricket from 1980 to 1995. The documentary affirms what Evander and I wrote about in our book Right Off the Bat: that cricket in the West Indies always meant more than economic opportunity or the enjoyment of the game. It was also a statement about racial equality and a chance for those who’d been belittled and humiliated to get back at those who for so long had demeaned them—their former colonial masters.

We’re reminded that the Windies’ strategy of blasting out the opposition with a seemingly endless supply of fast bowlers—Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Colin Croft, Wayne Daniel, Joel Garner, Malcolm Marshall, and so on—was itself a reaction to the dominance of Australia’s two quicks, Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee in the mid-1970s. We’re also made aware that the Windies were criticized for their brand of fiercely competitive cricket; most sides were used to Caribbean sides playing stylish and joyful cricket—and losing. How dare they show up trying to win!

Those who have no interest in, or understanding of, cricket will still be able to appreciate the documentary. They’ll see how the rise of Black Power in the U.S. influenced people in the Caribbean not only to take on the oppressive forces that still lingered from the colonial area, but to take on the corrupt political ruling bodies in the Caribbean itself. The result, as Fire in Babylon shows, was that cricket became one of the major forms of cultural self-expression and confidence, as important as Bob Marley and reggae in the Caribbean and ska/two-tone music in the U.K. It was a renaissance of confidence that brought change not only in the Caribbean, but it raised the consciousness of the U.K. Highly recommended.

Posted in Australia, Cricket, West Indies | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Ron Santo Makes the Hall

Posted on December 21, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook

Several weeks ago the Veterans Committee of the National Baseball Hall of Fame announced that Ron Santo, the click-of-the-heels, laser-throwing, and clutch-hitting third baseman for the vintage Chicago Cubs (1960–70) had been inducted. This announcement came nearly a year to the day of Santo’s death.

Chicago papers reported that Billy Williams, the outfielder who played with Santo (and who, along with Ferguson Jenkins and Ernie Banks, constituted three of the four players from that Cubs team in, or to-be-in, Cooperstown) called Santo’s wife, Vicki, to give her the good news.

Some wish that this had occurred earlier while Santo was still alive to savor the trip to the shore of Lake Otsego and the induction into the Leatherstocking village of James Fenimore Cooper. Rather than go down that road, let’s be glad that this has occurred. The Powers-of-the-Hall have affirmed what kids who played baseball in Chicago parks or took the Ravenswood el to Belmont for the quick hop north to Addison Street and Wrigley Field always knew: Aside the spectral Bill James-style sabermetric stats, Ron Santo was a genuine baseball hero.

I (William van Ornum) was eleven-years old and in seventh grade when my friend Wayne and I rode our Schwinn wide-tube bikes along a road next to the Chicago and Northwestern tracks to Santo’s house in Park Ridge. (Wayne had a friend who gave him the address.) I approached hesitantly, like a bunt dribbling down the third base line. Santo emerged from his ranch house, welcomed Wayne and me into his driveway, and signed my friend’s mitt and then mine: “To Bill, Best Wishes, Ron Santo.” Along with the Bobby Shantz “autograph” (branded onto the glove by the manufacturer) was Ron’s. It took a few years for the ink to wear off as I snagged many ground balls and maybe even a line drive or two. I’ve since lost the glove, but the fond memories remain.

I hope I’ll run into Cubs fans from the past on July 22, 2012, when Santo is enshrined.

About a year ago, just after his death, I wrote a fond remembrance of Santo for America.

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Me and Yu and a Dog Named Boo

Posted on December 20, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook

Seems that Yu is coming to Arlington

Turns out Japanese pitching sensation Yu Darvish will probably be signing with Nolan Ryan and his Rangers. Earlier reports of the Toronto Blue Jays winning rights to and even signing Yu were, in the words of Mark Twain, greatly exaggerated. Apologies to our readers for the earlier-blog misinformation and confusion.

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The Doublespin Mechanics of Yu Darvish

Posted on December 17, 2011 by rightoffthebatbook

Hurler Yu Darvish has a pitch never before seen in North America.

Yu Darvish, reportedly signed by the Toronto Blue Jays, brings a whole new pitch to Major League Baseball. It is said to be developed by Japanese scientists. Just between Yu and me, the American League East just got a whole lot more interesting.

Posted in Baseball | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment