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Book Of The Year Award > 2011 > Swinging Away - How Cricket and Baseball Connect
Beth Hise, Scala Publishers Ltd
Purchase on Amazon
 There's a new kid in town on the cricket publishing front. Scala Publishers, whose main output is in quality art books, have teamed up with the MCC to produce a book that is an excellent accompaniment to an exhibition at Lord's. The exhibition is scheduled to run from May to December 2010 and then move to Cooperstown, New York from April 2001 to February 2012. Finally, two nations divided not only by a common language but by two hard-ball sports may be coming together.
After a somewhat redundant foreword by Andrew Flintoff, the book gets under way with a useful and typically well-written introduction by Matthew Engel, after which, Beth Hise gets to work on the origins, history and current state of the two sports. The key to the book is in the sub-title - How Cricket and Baseball Connect and the aim of the book, if that's not too strong a description, is to demonstrate that the origins and growth of the game lie far more closely than previously thought. The traditional insult levied by the English is that Baseball is merely Rounders with better PR and more money. The traditional American retort as typified by Robin Williams is that, 'Cricket is Baseball on Valium,' So, the book and exhibition are going to have to try very hard to get over those ingrained prejudices and reconcile not just two sports but two nations.
One of the great problems facing both sports is that there is so much that we do not know about their origins. Cricket commenced……………. Well, when did it commence? The reference to 'creag' in the early fourteenth century might be the first reference to cricket and then again, it might not. What seems to be true of early histories of both sports was that after some general agreement about the rural origins, those histories were hi-jacked by writers, anxious to prove that the sport had a nationalistic flavour. Cricket became quintessentially English, to ward off the disturbing possibility that those 'cursed Frenchies' might have had something to do with inventing the sport and similarly, Baseball simply had to be the invention of a 100% American now that the country had fully severed its ties with 'Old England.' Thankfully, modern research, if not able to definitively solve the question of both sports' origins can dispel many of the later myths.
It's doubtful whether ingrained views will ever be reconciled but the book does a great service to both sports in setting out exactly what we know and more pertinently, what we don't know, about both Cricket and Baseball. While the text is both lucid and entertaining, the eye is drawn time and again to the stunning illustrations which appear on just about every page. Often the phrase, 'a labour of love' is used to admire the effort but cast doubt on the quality of a book. No such insult is meant here; the description fairly describes a work, not only of scholarship but one where a love of the game(s) shines through. It's not a place where scandals need to be discussed, Babe Ruth is shown as the giant of Baseball; his personal life is properly irrelevant and some of the fun is when the Babe is shown in cricket gear and his visit to England where he was persuaded to try out his skills at in the nets. It's reasonably safe to say that he was polite but not wholly convinced.
Any casual English cricket-watcher on a summer visit to New York should they find themselves happily ensconced in a bar and if they can persuade the owner to switch from the Fight Channel, or ice-hockey as it seems to be known there, to a Major League Baseball game, may feel curiously at home. Despite the view of Cricket as a different game where nothing much happens for long periods of time, it is quite possible to see nothing much happening in a Baseball game for say, a period of forty or so minutes. Pitchers send down wide balls. Strikes are recorded. Pitcher and catcher converse at length. A batter is 'walked' to first base because the pitching side choose not to run the risk of a home run. Adverts intercede. No runs are scored. No batters are dismissed. But the crowds don't mind and maybe this is the great meeting-point for two sports. They are essentially social occasions where sometimes there will be great excitement and fabulous hitting and sometimes nothing much will happen.
To return to the book; if you go to the exhibition, either at Lord's or when it moves to New York, this book will provide both a fine guide and a very nice memoir. If you can't make the exhibition, should you buy it? The answer is almost certainly, yes. If you have an interest in either (or both) sport's history, this is essential and if you just enjoy either (or both) sports, then it's still a very worthwhile purchase. Some other congratulations are in order. To Lord's and the admirable Adam Chadwick for hosting a somewhat left-field exhibition when they could have plumped for something purely cricket-based and safer, to Beth Hise for some skilful and entertaining writing in this accompanying book and to Scala Publishers, for producing a high-quality and affordable book. One hopes they will be inspired to produce more works with Cricket as the subject.
Surprise treat of the year so far.
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