Baseball. Baseball and god. What could be more important? An now a couple of baseball players are in a snit.
The Cliff Notes version: After hitting a homer off Wilson in the 12th inning of the Giants’ 7-5 13-inning victory, Blake was seen on television making the same well known gesture that Wilson makes after every save in tribute to both his Christian faith and his late father.Â
By the time Wilson returned to the clubhouse after securing the win in the 13th, some friends had sent images of Blake to his cell phone, sending him into an agitated state that his teammates instantly had to calm him down from.
After all, Wilson must have a patent on the “two forefingers pointing to the sky” gesture, and only he should be using it. Why, if just anyone could do it, god wouldn’t know how special Mr Wilson is.
Wilson explains the importance of the gesture.
“It shows no disrespect toward anybody. It’s all positive praise. It’s not for showboating. It’s not to start an epidemic. It’s just me getting a quick message out to the world and to Christ and that’s it. I just thought, ‘What more perfect time to display my faith than at the end of a game?'”
Indeed. What more perfect time could there be?
“It’s not for showboating” != “It’s just me getting a quick message out to the world”
Wilson probably thought Blake should be pointing down. Blake was pointing in the wrong direction, and this was very offensive to Wilson, who does not worhsip the deeevilll… wooooooo…
Looks like some sorta demon summonin’ sign ta me.
Christ wants messages too, and since he’s never been much good with silicon and metal (mostly the soft, carbonaceous stuff, you know–all done with genetic algorithms), you can’t twitter him or anything like that.
And he’s been blasting the wrong people with lightning for millenia, so you know he can’t recognize faces.
So yeah, a person needs special gestures so that Jesus knows who’s sending the message.
Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/6mb592
Well, I’m just glad Brian Wilson isn’t lying about depressed over the cancellation of Smile any more.
I love my San Francisco Giants, but Brian Wilson also thinks the flame tattoos on his arms make him throw faster.
“What more perfect time to display my faith than at the end of a game?”
How about before the game? That way, if you win, you’ll know it was thanks to God, and if you lose, you’ll know God is very angry with you.
Surely a single finger would be sufficient?
If the xtians keep doing the secret handshake in public sooner or later us atheists will want one of our own to keep secret, too. Then we’ll have a secret handshake gap which will soon escalate out of control.
Of course some of you might say we already have one, the emotion-fingered salute…
I think you missed quoting the (to me) best part of the commentary:
*snort*
Yes, saying “thank you, God, for helping me win this game” has absolutely no implication that God must have kept the other guy from winning the game. None at all. It’s just a story about your relationship to God, is all.
Sort of the way that “most of the world will be damned” is marketed as “Good News,” because hey, it won’t have to happen to you. So it’s all positive.
One second after I had lowered my mug. =8-)
All this proves is that the Dodgers are an abomination in the eyes of God. Why else would He give the Giants such an unlikely victory?
One grown adult tried to upset another grown adult by using the other person’s secret hand gesture. It worked. This is so wrong on so many levels on both sides I have trouble wrapping my head around it. Blake, 20 minutes sitting in the corner; Wilson, stop playing with your hands.
Does he make the sign every time he doesn’t make the save? If not, wouldn’t that be the Sin of Pride? Or saying “Thanks for NOTHING, God and my dead father! Where were you jerks this time?!”
I wonder what Gould would have to say about this. Are baseball and God non-overlapping magisteria?
“I wonder what Gould would have to say about this.”
More importantly, what would Eagletosh say?
(We know what Eric would say — Wilson’s gesture reflects a category error.)
Even worse are the boxers who thank god for giving them the strength to beat the shit out of their opponents. God has a great left jab, I guess.
God causes a team to win a baseball game but doesn’t stop atrocities in Sri Lanka. That certainly shows where god’s priorities are.
Is never a time?
It’s weird; God is rarely mentioned or thanked in hockey, and yet–almost miraculously–one team usually wins and the other loses.
It’s almost–hear me out on this–almost as if the game were Designed that way.
There little boys actually get paid for playing that game and they can not even get along together.
They need a time out.
I suggest a $50,000 fine by MLB every time they get into a snit. Proceeds to go for curing cancer.
wow, I started that with ‘their’ instead of ‘They are’. When did I lose brain cells?
I didn’t read the original post completely correct, and so when I read “two fingers at the sky”, being English I assumed he was an atheist, and was giving the “archer’s salute”
I thought the two-finger gesture was “two in the pink”. This would be directed at, um, Urania, the Goddess of Heaven?
You also have to specify what’s going on with the stink in that case. Is it a “shocker” or a “spocker” or a “rocker”?
What a non story…I’m suprised to see this here, even in a mocking sense…it’s more like something I would see at HuffPo….c’mon PZ, this is below you, unless the symbols had some mystic connection to celephods…
I’m shocked, just shocked, to find out that overpaid men playing a children’s game are arrogant and immature.
This is one of my favorite jokes.
Ballplayers have their little rituals, and stealing one (especially after you just hit a game tying home run in the 12th off the guy) is very rude.
Wilson is very low-key about his faith. He doesn’t talk about it unless asked, is focused on his pitching, and by all reports one of the best guys in the clubhouse. He credits his faith in helping him beat booze, so if he wants to acknowledge that, fine with me.
This was a Giants-Dodgers game.. bench-clearing brawls have broken out over less.
GO GIANTS!!!
Oh, NewEnglandBob at #22? The Giants pioneered Strike Out Cancer Day and Until There’s A Cure Day (which actually caused a real religious snit a few years back) and are active in supporting cancer research.
Susan @ 10 is right.
that was the best part of the article.
With sports writers though, one would have to second guess whether it was intentional or not.
either way…
funny stuff.
Yeah, I noticed that, too. And did he really intend to imply that Casey Blake is or was, in some way, blind or handicapped simply because he didn’t know about Wilson’s sacred hand signals?
Ballplayers have their little rituals, and stealing one (especially after you just hit a game tying home run in the 12th off the guy) is very rude.
*yawn*
if you actually READ what the man had to say about his “little ritual”, you might wonder why he hasn’t been encouraging everyone to do it.
I rather think Noadi above has the sense of it right. Baseball is filled with overgrown little boys.
Noadi? Hitting a Major League pitch has been described as the hardest thing to do in all of sports. Read the Physics of Baseball for some eye-openers. There’s a world of difference between kids playing Little League and facing down a 97MPH fastball that gives you less than a second to judge before committing to a swing.
http://webusers.npl.illinois.edu/~a-nathan/pob/
Casey Blake is or was, in some way, blind or handicapped simply because he didn’t know about Wilson’s sacred hand signals?
umm…
no…
round these parts I think most of us would conclude it’s a poke at Wilson, not Blake.
There’s a world of difference between kids playing Little League and facing down a 97MPH fastball that gives you less than a second to judge before committing to a swing.
irrelevant to the ATTITUDES and social development of those playing the game, though.
kids get better reflexes as they get older. Doesn’t mean they get better sense, defacto.
How soon before the Blakeans start burning the Wilsonites at the stake?
I’m totally uninterested in how hard it is to hit a pitch. It’s still a children’s game which grown men are paid ridiculous sums of money to play (to the point where most families can’t afford to take their children to see a major league game). I have plenty of respect for athletes who play for the love of the game, out of competitiveness, drive to win a trophy, etc. less so for those who play for the sums MLB players do. Even less when they whine about someone stealing their special hand gesture.
How soon before the Blakeans start burning the Wilsonites at the stake?
right after the next bench-clearing brawl, so, probably later this week.
Brownian,
What he probably doesn’t mention in that article is that most NHL players are Canadian, French, Russian or Eastern European, places where Christianity is more in decline than it is in the US (as a hockey player I wanted to choke myself after he started talking about hockey ministries, so I couldn’t continue).
For those of you who aren’t familiar with it, baseball is an obscure American sport made famous by a number of columns on it written by the late Stephen Jay Gould, world famous biologist and science writer.
For our British pharyngulists, baseball is just like rounders, only different.
How soon before the Blakeans start burning the Wilsonites at the stake?
right after the next bench-clearing brawl, so, probably later this week.
Silly me, the Wilsonites’ theologically ordained method of execution involves hurling high-velocity balls at the heretics, commonly known as “balling”.
I like it.
Anything that makes religion more trivial is good.
By the way, Moggie at 8, the English are using 2 fingers,
originally to taunt the French, now to taunt anybody when they feel like it.
It is definitely an unfriendly gesture.
Yeah, what Noadi said.
And besides, I’m tired of seeing those sissy baseball players anyway. How about some real Merikan sports for a change? Greased pig wrastlin’ don’t git half the airtime it deserves.
How old is this Wilson clown, twelve?
Hey, PZ. Just thought I’d mention that I took Casey Blake in an expansion draft in my computer-based baseball simulation. See, I’ve moved on from my Australian haunts, and so I’m afraid that the Darwin Finches have a new GM. I like the occasional challenge of starting a team from scratch. But not to worry, you’re still managing the Finches for now. After all, even though you blew the World Series, you led the Unnatural Selections to the league’s best record last season.
Oh, I don’t know…I always liked the Beach Boys.
Baseball and god. What could be more important?
Amen
Yet again, I quote George Carlin:
“Play now, pray later.”
Sort of the way that “most of the world will be damned” is marketed as “Good News,” because hey, it won’t have to happen to you. So it’s all positive.
Right. It’s kind of like when I realized in high school that many peers believed that ‘the failure of others’ = ‘my success’, which is a lesson implicit in many teacher’s practice….anyway, to the privileged mindset of many Christians, the idea that their assertion of belief could possibly be perceived as exclusive never enters their heads.
douglas #34 :
Well, a hockey comes at more than 100MPH and the distance between the faceoff spot and the goal crease is about 20 ft, not like the huge 60 ft between the mound and the home plate. So…
GMacs #40 :
And when Americans do a movie about hockey, they call it “Miracle” while the Canadians call it “The Hockey Sweater” or “The Rocket”. I wonder why…
Should’ve been
“Well, a hockey puck”. A hockey stick can come pretty fast either…
“Silly me, the Wilsonites’ theologically ordained method of execution involves hurling high-velocity balls at the heretics, commonly known as ‘balling’.”
Is this in any way related to “tea-bagging?”
Do these idjits have deities that are in geosynchronous orbit or something? How is it that they are always right above their heads?
Oh wait, that’s right, they don’t know the earth is a rotating sphere… of course their gods are directly overhead. There is only one “up.”
Off topic but in Canada things are starting to look dire. Harper has appointed anti-science yahoos on science boards!
ARGH!
If god cares about baseball, why does Teh Baby Jesus hate the Cubs so much?
Baseball and gawd – what could be more important?
Pie
Bacon
And the well filled trouser.
Glen Davidson @#4 “you can’t twitter him or anything like that”
That’s where you’re wrong…
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1895463,00.html?cnn=yes
There are a 100,000 more things interesting in baseball, http://twoandahater.blogspot.com/2009/03/baseball-payrolls.html
and this is stupid god thing is people want to talk about?
Politics and Star Trek. I know my audience.
http://thetimchannel.com/?p=417
Enjoy.
I’ve already got a fat ass from all the pie and bacon, thank you.
That’s where you’re wrong…
well, technically, unless you actually expect a response.
as an aside, from the article you linked to:
adding glitz and glitter to xianity has been a time honored tradition.
However, to make it “not suck”, I would suggest removing all the boring references to imaginary deities, asinine arguments about hellfire consequences for irreverent behavior, and just leave the parts where people can sing and dance (for no reason other than the pleasure of doing so, of course).
That would work better.
Of course, then the pastor would just be a DJ at a nightclub…
oh, wait, that’s it! Just turn all the churches into nightclubs. The pastors can just become DJ’s and the altar can be turned into a bar.
just need to clear out some of those pew benches first.
Can we show our respect to religion with the “big bird pointing at the sky” gesture?
Obviously the other guy must be the spawn of the devil because he doesn’t belong to the One True Cult. It’s pogrom time!
Tis Himself – err…that wasn’t exactly the part of the trouser I had in mind.
I LOVE baseball taunts! I see this as no different than when Aubrey Huff mimicked Joba Chamberlain’s excessive cheering after hitting a home run.
@31:
Actually, the best part of the article comes if you link to the Mercury News blog it references:
“So I basically give respect to the ultimate fighting world and I also give respect to Christ….”
So there you go.
Bacon pie with a side of puppy, and a well filled trouser.
I remember exactly the day that I first gave the finger to the sky god and nothing happened, and my friends thought I was nuts and took a step back. It is amazing what a difference it makes, which finger and how many, for people to think you’re doing something reasonable or not. Well, in hindsight I wasn’t being reasonable back then either, just testing limits, trying to assure myself that there really was not sky god. Knowing that now, I think it hilarious that grown men “give praise” for their sports prowess. Just what are they thinking?
I started reading his explanation for what the sign meant today. I stopped after about two sentences and the only thing I got out of it was, “Brian Wilson is an idiot…”
Well, a hockey comes at more than 100MPH and the distance between the faceoff spot and the goal crease is about 20 ft, not like the huge 60 ft between the mound and the home plate. So…
Yeah, except in baseball the ball will be coming with sideways and downward motion, the hitter is off to the side, and trying to hit a fairly small sphere with a cylindrical bit of wood. In hockey the goalie is armored like a tank and already covers most of the net just standing there.
I’m not saying that hockey isn’t hard. I’m just saying that “hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in sports” is one of those bits of conventional wisdom that is actually accurate…
I use a similar gesture, only after having sex with my wife..provided she climaxes. If I’m premature, I tell her Satan is strong tonight and she prays while I sleep.
Bacon pie. We may have to have a collaboration of the Pharyngula Ilk on this subject. I say it needs to start with bear fat pie crust.
As for the well filled trouser, I like Johnny Depp’s.
*This is a stadium announcement*
Let us pray.
Dear Lord most high and mighty we give you thanks.
We give praise to you for the gift of a torn rotator cuff sent most graciously to our star pitcher.
We thank you for our third baseman tearing a back muscle while putting on his new cowboy boots.
We give praise for the time when our mascot fell off the top of the dugout rendering the coach unconscious with a misplaced blow from his 4-foot long comedy shoe.
We gazed in awe at your power at the injury sustained to our veteran pitcher heroically sliding into second in the bottom of the 13th last Tuesday. Only the Lord (who works in mysterious ways) could have made him forget to remove his dentures from his back pocket.
For these and the many other gifts you bestow upon us,
Amen.
*Cue cheesy organ music*
Somewhat less important event: Patricia, I’ll be in Oregon near the end of July. Maybe I’ll twirl by!
Wilson, this one’s for you:
Of course, in baseball you are standing still, waiting for the pitch, while in hockey you are moving on skates with another guy clubbing you with his stick.
But they’re both better than golf.
I think the perfect time to display your faith is when you’re taking a crap. Quiet time for you and Jesus, and no one else has to see.
Oh sure…he loves Jesus. But let Christ crowd the plate and he’d throw at the Lord’s head. High and tight – up and in – make the Savior take a little dirt dive to keep his skull attached. It’s one thing to suffer crucifixion for the sins of man, but sonuvabitch NOBODY crowds the plate!
I think this is crazy. The implication with all this drama is that Wilson’s faith was being mocked instead of the obnoxious gesture he makes every time he gets a save or win being thrown in his face after the opponent just went yard. Notice that Wilson only makes this gesture after his saves and wins – it is a gesture of triumph and Blake was having some fun. What a whiner.
Okay, I have just three words for you: Monkey bacon. Huh? What? I’m thirsty.
“It’s just me getting a quick message out to the world and to Christ and that’s it. I just thought, ‘What more perfect time to display my faith than at the end of a game?'”
The humility of the believer is astounding, isn’t it? God even favors him in sporting events.
Of course the end of a game is a more perfect time to display his faith than, say, at his church on Sunday. Sports are more important to God than anything!
I will have to take your word on that “quiet time” bit. Potty time for BobbyEarle is anything but quiet.
Try do it in private, like Jesus suggested. Or maybe that was just prayer?
someone asked terry bradshaw, an ardent christian, about the fact that he never gave thanks to jesus on the field. have to hand it to him, his response was “if i praise jesus on the field for a win…what do i do if we lose?”
Mojo Factor is more important in Baseball than just about any other sport.
Insulting a players Mojo is unsportsmanlike and rude.
Those that look for trouble usually find it….Especially when it’s pitcher that can throw heat.
This is, of course, most uncivilized.
oh christ, here comes the waaaaahmbulance, I can hear it now!
waaah! waaah! waaah!
all aboard!
The Japanese sucked at Baseball until they started converting to Christianity.
True Fact.
My first reaction….fine. Whatever. If he wants to throw up a peace sign, or point skyward, or flick off the camera, whatever. I don’t follow sports much, but it seems like whenever I catch a clip of someone making a touchdown, or a home run, or finishing first in a race, there’s a decent chance they’ll do something along the same lines. I honestly don’t know enough about baseball to understand who supposedly did what to whom, but really…it sounds to me like some petty rivalry being stoked by a whole lot of nothing. One guy made a gesture, then another guy (on the other team) made the same gesture….eh. Move along.
In hockey, you are supposed to stand in front of the opposing goalie, screening his view of the puck while your teammate at the blue line slaps one hard at you. At that point you are supposed to hit the puck with your stick to change the direction just enough to keep the goalie from catching or deflecting it.
So that’s like batting… and a whole lot more.
So god is interested in an obscure rounders match? If the team loses, does that mean they’ve been cursed for their sins, or is it just that god has got bored with rounders and has decided to support the Chipping Sodbury village cricket team instead?
PZ,
can SB please disable this “ping.chartbeat.net” rubbish until it is sorted out,rendering the site almost unusable,if you want to post,or reload.
Here in the UK we have a little game called ‘Cricket’ where you have to hit a ball with a piece of wood, standing to the side, at upwards of 90mph, AFTER it has bounced off the floor (giving a random component to its trajectory). That must also be the hardest thing to do in sports. This would explain why England are actually not very good at it…
If I was going to mock him, I would’ve pointed at the ground.
God couldn’t possible be rooting for both teams but there is someone else out there who apparently is more powerful since God can’t stop him and he seems to be able to plant false evidence all over the place, where as God has yet to leave any evidence besides hearsay and some old literature.
Hitting a baseball is the hardest thing in Sports??
As mentioned earlier cricket is harder. However if you want a really hard sport try Hurling.
@86 The Japanese sucked at Baseball until they started converting to Christianity.
Well, DUH. They didn’t play baseball OR practice christinanity until after we kicked their butts in wwii and imposed our culture on them. They sucked at baseball because they didn’t have any baseball players. Proficiency at baseball has nothing to do with christinanity. Oh wait, I can hear you asking, “Then why aren’t there any muslim baseball teams, eh?” Same reason they don’t have bacon.
hobbit, they’re apparently better at it than the West Indies right now, which is something I once thought I’d never be able to say.
Oh, somewhere the sun is shining,
Somewhere they’re having lunch
But Casey & his bat put
Wilson’s knickers in a bunch.
Go Braves!
Oh…
sorry. Not that kind of baseball thread.
Euripides @ #72
Thank you. That was the funniest thing I’ve read all night.
And if God exists, he clearly isn’t a baseball fan or the Mets would have won another Series by now.
Jumpin’ Jeezus, if an athlete admits to enlisting the support of a god to enhance his or her performance, that’s just as bad as admitting to taking performance enhancing drugs. I presume that the body administering the support, & the WADA, will take action against this player.
I LOL at the fact that this is even considered “newsworthy”.
I honestly don’t know enough about baseball to understand who supposedly did what to whom, but really…it sounds to me like some petty rivalry being stoked by a whole lot of nothing.
The thing you’re missing is that Casey Blake is on the LA Dodgers and Brian Wilson is on the San Francisco Giants. They have a rivalry going way back to the time when they were the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York (baseball) Giants. These are two of the most storied franchises in baseball and they have a rivalry that’s right up there with the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox.
hobbit @91 and Greg @93
To carry on the entertaining trivia. A cricket bat is 4.25 inches wide and flat with a longer surface on the barrel. A baseball bat is 2.75 inches wide and round. Both balls are essentially the same size, 9 inches in circumference. Now for those guys playing, who’s equipment works better, to score a better average?
It’s weird; God is rarely mentioned or thanked in hockey
That’s because Canadians, Swedes, Finns, Russians, Czechs and Slovaks are all atheists, don’tcha know. Except for some of the ones from Alberta, of course, but there’s a limit of two of those per team. It’s all part of the vast atheist hockey conspiracy.
Go Canes.
Ooops. Sorry. Not that kind of thread.
I keep forgetting.
Believe it or not, I actually grew up with Brian Wilson… It *IS* the perfect time for him, his father was very proud of him before he died of cancer. I am an atheist, but this isn’t thanking god for letting him win a game like a lot of players do, it’s not in even in the same ballpark, pardon the pun… I’m simply saying you have to understand his reasoning, and not just scoff at the guy’s little ritual.
I’m pretty sure Piccolo makes that gesture right before he blows a hole through people with energy blasts.
To me that particular gesture is reminiscent of the Scarecrow in the Wizard of Oz.
It displays confusion, a lack of direction, an inability to properly perceive reality.
The most home runs hit in a major league baseball game is 4, a record jointly held by 12 players (including Lou Gehrig, Willy Mays, and Bob Horner). The most runs batted in First Class Cricket is West Indian Brian Lara with 501 not out for Warwickshire against Durham in 1994. Sorry, guys, but the cricketeers have better scores than baseball players.
Too much. From the sponsor of this bills website:
Congressman Broun applies the following four way test to every piece of legislation:
1) Is It Contitutional and a Proper Function of Government?
2) Is It Morally Right?
3) Is It Something we Need?
4) Can We Afford It?
He must grade on a curve.
and not just scoff at the guy’s little ritual.
The point of this isn’t to scorn his “little ritual”, it’s to mock his very public childish snit. That’s the only reason this story is in the news, after all.
well I’m no cricket expert but what is the length of an average cricket game? Only thing I know I picked up from some 90 year old dude in a pub in London one long day of drinking.
how many at bats in an average game?
And home runs and runs batted in are different things in base ball. i assume they are different in cricket as well.
Is there even an equivalent of a home run in cricket?
“The point of this isn’t to scorn his “little ritual”, it’s to mock his very public childish snit. That’s the only reason this story is in the news, after all.”
He’s a public figure… his reaction became public “just because”. If you lost your father, and at say….your graduation, you rubbed your pocket to say “thanks for the support all those eyars dad” and people started mocking that gesture… I imagine you’d react poorly as well. Please stop poorly rationalizing.
“The point of this isn’t to scorn his “little ritual”, it’s to mock his very public childish snit. That’s the only reason this story is in the news, after all.”
He’s a public figure… his reaction became public “just because”. If you lost your father, and at say….your graduation, you rubbed your pocket to say “thanks for the support all those years dad” and people started mocking that gesture… I imagine you’d react poorly as well. Please stop poorly rationalizing.
uhh sorry for double post.
So your point is what?
He is a public personality doing things in public. He could do his little ritual after the game in private but he choses to do it on the mound, in public view on TV that in some cases is broadcasted nationally.
Do all public figures get a pass on mocking or critique just because the thing they do is “personal”? Do we not get to comment on their becoming upset at said mocking or critique?
Plus it was another baseball player supposedly mocking him on a team that is their traditional arch rival. That is what set him off. If it was some random fan in the stand I doubt you’d have seen the same reaction.
There’s more to it than you are seemingly willing to accept.
“Do all public figures get a pass on mocking or critique just because the thing they do is “personal”? Do we not get to comment on their becoming upset at said mocking or critique?
Plus it was another baseball player supposedly mocking him on a team that is their traditional arch rival. That is what set him off. If it was some random fan in the stand I doubt you’d have seen the same reaction.”
While one may seem to think this adds to the discussion, I fail to see the connection… yeah, if your “enemy” mocks you, versus a stranger, you’re apt to take it more personally… great analysis. While it may be kind of lame to use the example of “enemy” I’m guessing you haven’t played sports, I don’t any longer, but I understand the concept of taking it personally from an opposing team.
My main point is going to be: “who cares” I’m going to take the libertarian route on this one… the guy isn’t doing it to SHOW HOW GREAT HE IS, nor is he trying to convert the masses, so who cares… Ben Stein is a better target, he’s actually a prick.
Test matches can take up to five days. However most games are one-day events, sometimes lasting six hours or more. A game may be for a certain number of innings (one or two), a certain number of overs (a bowler bowls six times* at a wicket then the other bowler bowls six times at the other wicket, each set of six bowls is an over), or have a time limit.
There is a batsman at each wicket. The simplest way for a batsman to score a run is by the striker hitting the ball such that both batsman can run from one end of the pitch to the other without either batsman getting out: the batsmen effectively exchanging positions, so the striking batsman becomes the non-striker, and vice versa. The batsmen may be able to run up and down the pitch more than once, crossing each time, to score two, three or more runs.
If a batted ball crosses the field boundary on a bounce, four runs are automatically scored. If the ball crosses the boundary on the fly, six runs are scored.
A batsman continues to defend his wicket until the inning or the game is over, his side retires, he is dismissed or he is called out. The batsman may be out if he is:
* Bowled – his wicket is put down by a ball delivered by the bowler
* Caught – a batted ball is caught on the fly by an opponent
* Hits the ball twice
* Hit wicket – A batsman hits his wicket with his bat or his body and knocks a bail off.
* Run out – A batsman is out if at any time while the ball is in play no part of his bat or person is grounded behind the popping crease and his wicket is fairly put down by the opposing side.
* Stumped. A batsman is out when the wicket-keeper puts down the wicket and while the batsman is out of his crease but not attempting a run.
* Leg before wicket – (This is complicated, cricket’s equivalent of the balk rule in baseball.) If the ball hits the batsman without first hitting the bat, but would have hit the wicket if the batsman was not there, and the ball does not pitch on the leg side of the wicket the batsman will be out. However, if the ball strikes the batsman outside the line of the off-stump, and the batsman was attempting to play a stroke, he is not out.
A batsman may be dismissed if his wicket is down. This means that the wicket is hit by the ball, or the batsman, or the hand in which a fielder is holding the ball, and at least one bail is removed. He may also be dismissed if he is out of his ground. A batsman is in his ground if any part of him or his bat is on the ground behind the popping crease. If both batsman are in the middle of the pitch when a wicket is put down, the batsman closer to that end is out.
Aren’t you sorry you asked?
*Unless the game is played in Australia, where overs can be eight bowls.
I used to really like baseball, but between the steroids and the incessant demand for taxpayers to fund the playpens of overpaid doofuses playing a kids game I’ve given up. That and I’m not a drunk anymore so I have to echo Homer Simpson: “Without beer, I never noticed how boring this was”.
So you agree or not? And how is that lame. It’s a point that directly goes to this. If some jackhole in the stands mocked him do you think we’d be hearing about it?
And yes I’ve played sports (football, soccer, track, basketball, some lacrosse and plenty of single non “game” sports). What does that have to do with anything?
hell no. I’m always interested in finding things like this out.
Now when I see a match on the tube I’ll be able to at least try and follow it.
“So you agree or not? And how is that lame. It’s a point that directly goes to this. If some jackhole in the stands mocked him do you think we’d be hearing about it?
And yes I’ve played sports (football, soccer, track, basketball, some lacrosse and plenty of single non “game” sports). What does that have to do with anything?”
wouldnt you be more likely to get angry with an opponent in the ring mocking you than some bum fan who doesnt like you for some reason on the street? (assuming you dont have anger management issues)… and lame was refering to *MY* use of “enemy” as example. re-read it.
and of course we wouldn’t have heard anything about it. We can go back and forth on whose points make less sense. let’s not do that and squash it.
Oh sorry. My bad on reading comprehension there on the “lame”.
But yeah that’s my point. I think we agree. Do we?
No, I wouldn’t, because I’m not a spoiled, self-centered fuckwit whose gone out of my way to make myself famous. Nobody has a right to not be mocked, least of all me. How we deal with it is a sign of our maturity, and this Brian Wilson person failed utterly to behave like an adult.
Interesting. Nobody is asking you to stop defending the tantrums of a thin-skinned child-man just because you happened to know the him.
[quote]I understand the concept of taking it personally from an opposing team[/quote]
Baseball has long traditions of superstition and its own set of etiquette rules. Arguably no less “childish” than many other things that are fun.
Jim Bouton, who played for the New York Yankees in the 1960s says modern day baseball is like professional wrestling: all about show. That’s why he loves the vintage game.
“No chest bumping, high fiving, trash talking, hot dogging, pointing to the sky or kissing jewelry. Just baseball,” Bouton says. “And that’s why I love the game better than what you’re seeing on television.”
Maybe it is a case of old meeting new? Not so personal after all?
Yeah, I resent that my favorite sport is arguably the most full of über-christian wackos…but I usually get the impression that it’s not entirely sincere; almost as if it’s just some kind of signature move they want added to the video game.
Luckily, the best player on my home team is Jewish, so he doesn’t partake in that nonsense.
“How we deal with it is a sign of our maturity, and this Brian Wilson person failed utterly to behave like an adult.”
…because teammates had to “calm him down”?? really?? you write in response like he charged the opposing team’s bench to wreck havok on the guy.
I write in response to a man who threw a tantrum severe enough that his teammates had to calm him down because somebody on an opposing team mocked the allegedly deeply meaningful gesture that Wilson himself has made a point of turning into a public spectacle. (I hope that is enough emphasis for anyone who is still missing the point.)
He has been going out of his way to make himself the center of attention and lost his temper when someone didn’t pay him sufficient respect. If you don’t want anyone to laugh at your giant orange foam cowboy hat, then don’t wear the thing in front of millions of people.
I certainly hope the people here defending this guy aren’t hypocrites, and have never mocked single person’s behavior ever in their lives.
what is the length of an average cricket game
It goes until the crickets stop chirping. A can of RaidTM can help in this regard.
Thanks, ‘Tis Himself, for the cricket summary. Entertaining and educational.
I find the incident in the article mildly amusing. Wilson is a bit of a goof for making such a gesture all these years–especially if he does it in public but keeps the meaning mostly private (and if the meaning is a thanks to the god who killed his father with cancer, he’s just confused). Blake doing the gesture was funny–satirical of the public display, and perhaps with mockery of the sacred secret meaning, as it was done in the dugout. Wilson throwing a fit based on the secret meaning is just silly–the gesture is public.
Blake for the win.
Regarding that business of so few Christians playing hockey… From my admittedly light skimming of the article, I got the impression that the Catholics (Roman or Eastern Orthodox) didn’t count to him
Bear fat pie crust with just a hint of Gruyère.
Uncle Glenny @131
He did, buried in there:
the Catholics (Roman or Eastern Orthodox) didn’t count to him
Catholics are not True ChristiansTM. Just ask Pat Robertson.
Hey, you think if we combined baseball, cricket, golf, football, hockey and sumo wrestling…maybe we’d have a game of Brockian Ultra Cricket on our hands?
#135 Kate:
Only if you are using entire planetary systems as sporting equipment. :)