Fielding
The main difference between fielding in the two sports is that the fielders in cricket are not allowed to use any sort of protection for the hands – padded or otherwise, even though the balls are of similar hardness. The only exception to this rule in cricket is made for the wicket-keeper, who is allowed to wear padded gloves as well as leg guards, and of course a box. In baseball, catchers and first basemen normally wear mitts, which have no fingers and are specially designed for each position respectively. The other fielders wear gloves, which have fingers. (Note that early baseball was also played bare-handed; gloves were adopted in the latter 19th Century.) This means that the risk of injury due the impact of the ball is far higher in cricket. Also, especially in Test cricket, it is common for several fielders to be stationed close to the bat (slips, short leg, silly point and similar positions) since the value of dismissing a batsman off a catch is higher. Catching at these positions require exceptional reflexes, skill and courage, associated with bare-handed catching of a hard ball traveling at up to 100 miles an hour, with reaction times of the order of 0.2 seconds.
Baseball games have far lower scores than cricket matches. The largest combined runs total in a single game in the history of Major League Baseball is 49, whereas first-class cricket matches, including Tests, have produced combined totals from both innings of over a thousand runs.
For a more direct comparison, matches in Twenty20 cricket, a form of limited overs cricket in which games last about as long in time as a regulation baseball game, regularly produce combined run totals of 300 or more, with the all-time record being 443. Each run in a baseball game is roughly seventy-five times the magnitude of a run in a Test cricket match; therefore moments of poor pitching (akin to bowling in cricket) and individual fielding mistakes are much more costly. A player who is a good batter, but who is not a competent fielder, will not play regularly, or only in the designated hitter position in leagues that use it.
Baseball players often need to throw immediately after catching the struck ball (for example, the double play), while this is unnecessary in cricket as the ball is deemed "dead" when a "dismissal" takes place.
The configuration of the baseball diamond effectively bars left-handers from the fielding positions that make throwing to first base a primary responsibility. Right-handers can throw to their left—i.e., toward first base—with much greater ease than can left-handers, so virtually all second baseman, shortstop, and third baseman are right-handed. Apparently for cultural reasons, left-handed catchers are also exceedingly rare.While most throws a first baseman must make go to the right, which a left-hander can generally accomplish with greater speed and fluency, this is a relatively small factor in the advantage for left-handed first baseman. More important advantages are related to the position of a left-handed first baseman with respect to the base. First, a left-handed first baseman has an advantage over his right-handed counterpart when catching a pickoff throw from the pitcher—when a first baseman is in pickoff position, standing in front of the bag, the left-hander can catch the ball and make a tag without having to move his arm across his body. (See the picture in the Strategy over the course of the game section below for the standard pickoff position with a right-handed first baseman.) Second, because the first baseman starts most plays with his left leg closer to the base, the left-hander does not have to make a half-pivot in order to get into the correct position to stretch out for a throw. For these reasons, left-handed throwers are far more common at first base than in the general population of baseball players. In contrast, cricket is fielded in the round: the handedness of the fielder in any given position is of far less consequence, and left-handers and right-handers are found in all parts of the field.
Body contact between runner and fielder is frequent in baseball, particularly at home plate. This is driven to a large extent by the manner in which a runner is put out. In both sports, rules prohibit interfering with runners. However, in baseball, the runner himself (or the base he is advancing to, if forced) must be tagged by a fielder holding the ball, in order to be put out. The catcher awaiting a throw will often stand between the plate and the runner. Once he catches it, the runner might try to go around the catcher, or he might simply bowl the catcher over, if he thinks he can dislodge the ball by such contact; and if the catcher does not have the ball, the runner may still bowl the catcher over, which is considered fair because by rule a fielder without a ball cannot impede a runner. By contrast, in cricket, an out is made by the ball dislodging the bails from the stumps. The stumps are the target for "tagging" rather than the runner. No contact of the runners is either necessary or allowed. Contact between opposing sides is rare, and is usually not deliberate. The inherently more violent sport of baseball was once even more so, as before the Knickerbocker Rules, it was permitted in some versions of the game to literally "throw out" a runner by hitting him (or "soaking" him) with a thrown ball (in lieu of hitting a base or stake that would equate to cricket's wickets). This rule still exists in some versions of the baseball variant called kickball, which is played with a soccer ball and thus is much less injurious. Kickball also calls for literal "bowling" of the ball, underhand, as with the old rules of both cricket and baseball.
Baseball games have far lower scores than cricket matches. The largest combined runs total in a single game in the history of Major League Baseball is 49, whereas first-class cricket matches, including Tests, have produced combined totals from both innings of over a thousand runs.
For a more direct comparison, matches in Twenty20 cricket, a form of limited overs cricket in which games last about as long in time as a regulation baseball game, regularly produce combined run totals of 300 or more, with the all-time record being 443. Each run in a baseball game is roughly seventy-five times the magnitude of a run in a Test cricket match; therefore moments of poor pitching (akin to bowling in cricket) and individual fielding mistakes are much more costly. A player who is a good batter, but who is not a competent fielder, will not play regularly, or only in the designated hitter position in leagues that use it.
Baseball players often need to throw immediately after catching the struck ball (for example, the double play), while this is unnecessary in cricket as the ball is deemed "dead" when a "dismissal" takes place.
The configuration of the baseball diamond effectively bars left-handers from the fielding positions that make throwing to first base a primary responsibility. Right-handers can throw to their left—i.e., toward first base—with much greater ease than can left-handers, so virtually all second baseman, shortstop, and third baseman are right-handed. Apparently for cultural reasons, left-handed catchers are also exceedingly rare.While most throws a first baseman must make go to the right, which a left-hander can generally accomplish with greater speed and fluency, this is a relatively small factor in the advantage for left-handed first baseman. More important advantages are related to the position of a left-handed first baseman with respect to the base. First, a left-handed first baseman has an advantage over his right-handed counterpart when catching a pickoff throw from the pitcher—when a first baseman is in pickoff position, standing in front of the bag, the left-hander can catch the ball and make a tag without having to move his arm across his body. (See the picture in the Strategy over the course of the game section below for the standard pickoff position with a right-handed first baseman.) Second, because the first baseman starts most plays with his left leg closer to the base, the left-hander does not have to make a half-pivot in order to get into the correct position to stretch out for a throw. For these reasons, left-handed throwers are far more common at first base than in the general population of baseball players. In contrast, cricket is fielded in the round: the handedness of the fielder in any given position is of far less consequence, and left-handers and right-handers are found in all parts of the field.
Body contact between runner and fielder is frequent in baseball, particularly at home plate. This is driven to a large extent by the manner in which a runner is put out. In both sports, rules prohibit interfering with runners. However, in baseball, the runner himself (or the base he is advancing to, if forced) must be tagged by a fielder holding the ball, in order to be put out. The catcher awaiting a throw will often stand between the plate and the runner. Once he catches it, the runner might try to go around the catcher, or he might simply bowl the catcher over, if he thinks he can dislodge the ball by such contact; and if the catcher does not have the ball, the runner may still bowl the catcher over, which is considered fair because by rule a fielder without a ball cannot impede a runner. By contrast, in cricket, an out is made by the ball dislodging the bails from the stumps. The stumps are the target for "tagging" rather than the runner. No contact of the runners is either necessary or allowed. Contact between opposing sides is rare, and is usually not deliberate. The inherently more violent sport of baseball was once even more so, as before the Knickerbocker Rules, it was permitted in some versions of the game to literally "throw out" a runner by hitting him (or "soaking" him) with a thrown ball (in lieu of hitting a base or stake that would equate to cricket's wickets). This rule still exists in some versions of the baseball variant called kickball, which is played with a soccer ball and thus is much less injurious. Kickball also calls for literal "bowling" of the ball, underhand, as with the old rules of both cricket and baseball.
