Product Description

A cultural comparison of two national games - cricket, English in origin, and American baseball - written from the viewpoint of a top-class practitioner of both codes. Ed Smith - the young Cambridge University and Kent batsman - has spent the winters since 1998 in Spring Training with the New York Mets baseball team. It has enabled him to contrast and compare arguably the two most iconic of sports from the inside. In fact, baseball had a thriving following in Britain until the early part of the 20th century (Derby County's former stadium was called the Baseball Ground; Tottenham Hotspur was at first a baseball club). Apart from learning two very different techniques, Ed learned that the sports' ultimate heroes, the Babe and the Don - Babe Ruth and Don Bradman - might as well have come from different planets, whilst baseball's pristine Hall of Fame in Cooperstown is a far cry from the ramshackle cricket museum at Lord's. The book paints a two-sided portrait of sports' most illustrious "hitting games". Written with the passion and sympathy of a genuine fan, it contains the behind-the-scenes insights of a professional player.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #29157 in Books
• Published on: 2003-05-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 213 pages

Review
* 'Original.engrossing.lucid and informative' - Christopher Martin-Jenkins, THE TIMES * 'Quite simply it is brilliant' - THE CRICKETER * 'Ed Smith is superb on analysing the different techniques involved in the two activities. He also writes with great insight. excellent on the social and historical contexts of both baseball and cricket.' Sunday Telegraph

About the Author
Ed Smith is one of England's most promising cricketers, the youngest batsman to score a century on his debut (aged 18 for Cambridge University v Glamorgan). He has written columns for the Sunday Telegraph and The Times.

Customer Reviews

Best sports book I have ever read!
Firstly, I am a big fan of cricket, I have a great passion for the game. Last year I visited Canada, where I saw a bit of baseball and I found the sport entertaining. I am even staying up til the early hours in the morning to watch it now! To find both of these similar sports in one book is as good as it sounds.

Ed Smith writes the baseball side of things like he has played the game himself. It is great to see how many similarities both games have. This book has a great balance of both sports and is well written. However, an interest in both sports is probably needed to fully enjoy this book.

Promising debut - Better to come?
If Ed Smith writes a book about the County Cricket circuit, it could well be very good. Where he inhabits home territory in "Playing Hard Ball", the writing is compelling and natural. When he writes of Baseball, (which comprises the majority of the book) his efforts often begin to grind to the uninitiated reader. In seeking to compare and contrast the two games, Smith often tries too hard to find parallels and strains to keep the narrative flowing freely.
There are many deft touches and the scope of his own reading is impressive in a 25 year old pro sportsman. However, there are times when he seems out of his depth, particularly when dealing with Anglo-American feeling post September 11th.
With Simon Hughes now retired to the Analyst's couch, there is definitely a place for a contemporary cricketer to chronicle the domestic game and Ed Smith shows here that he has the skills required.

Ed Smith gets it right
Ed Smith's very enjoyable book does a service to both sports - cricket and baseball. As I am a transplanted Yank in England, it helped me understand some of the tactical nuances of test cricket I had not yet penetrated - and it rekindled my nostalgia for baseball.

And it's always refreshing to see a double first at Cambridge put good old Anglo Saxon expressions in writing...