Fable Community Forums

Sure. Does cricket have appeal plays? Baseball and softball both have things that can happen that the umpire can't call unless one of the teams brings it up.

For instance, if the runner misses a base, and the umpire sees it, he/she won't say anything until the defensive team goes, "hey, he didn't touch second" or whathaveyou.

Yeah, the only ways the batsman can go out is if there's an appeal, or he walks.

Coincidentally, the Cricket World Cup is on, and IRELAND BEAT ENGLAND WOOOOOOO.

Really? You mean that ANYTHING that would get the batter out has to include one of the defensive players going "HEY! Dude in a pimpin' white hat! He's out, isn't he?"

YOU'RE AN AUSSIE WHY DO YOU CARE? Is this a kind of "Somebody beat the Cowboys and I don't care who, WOOOOO!" situation?

I'm pretty sure that's the case. If not, it's still definitely the case with the most common dismissals. And we usually just shorten the appeal to "HOWZAT?!?!?!"

It's just a massive upset, is all. Our rivarly with the poms is strong enough that we rejoice any time they get beaten, especially by a team as lowly as Ireland.

Usually if the batsman is clearly out, then he'll walk without needing to be told.

That's... kinda weird. In baseball and softball, the single most important thing the ump does is call balls and strikes. The second is call safe and out. Both can put a batter or runner out.

JEEZUS CHRIST DOES A CRICKET UMPIRE DO A SINGLE GODDAMN THING?

They decide no balls, wides, whether runs are runs, byes, or leg byes, as well as adjudicating whether the batsman is out in any of the several kinds of dismissals. They also signal when the ball is in play or not, and when the over ends, when power plays are taken. They also make sure the players play fairly and dont break the LAWS n ****.

I guess they have a lot of no balls, huh?

Like, LAWS, man? What kinda laws you got? No boring laws, I hope.

A no ball is when the ball is delivered illegally. The only way the batsman can be dismissed in a no ball is to be run out.

An example of our completely NON BORING laws are:

Law 10.1 (a) Frequency and duration of rolling
During the match the pitch may be rolled at the request of the captain of the batting side, for a period of not more than 7 minutes, before the start of each innings, other than the first innings of the match, and before the start of each subsequent day’s play. See (d) below.

All right, that rule... it took me a bit to get it. But by "pitch" you mean "field" and by "rolling" you mean... take a big 'ol roller and flatten out the field? And this is a part of the game, really?

The closest thing to that in baseball is that, in the pros, for instance, the field will get dragged between innings, though I'm not sure how often because, y'know, it's not part of the game, just grounds crew stuff.

Also, I remember discussing pitching motions at one point, and there's no follow-through allowed in cricket?

I ask, because I was at softball-umpire-training an we came to the bit where slowpitch has the no-follow through rule.

Also, thank you for making me grateful that baseball and softball rules aren't THAT boring.

No. The pitch refers to the hard strip of compressed dirt/grass in the middle of the field, where most of the action happens. Because the pitch affects how the ball bounces from it (a really hard pitch means the ball will be faster, and old, cracked pitch means the ball might bounce sideways, etc), the laws are pretty strict about how you can modify it.

Batting teams like it to be rolled, because it flattens it out and make the bounce more predictable, and bowlers don't like it, because well, it makes the bounce more predictable.

What do you mean follow-through?

I know THAT version of pitch, I comprehended it.

Then I moved on to OUR version of pitching. I don't know, you'd call it the bowling motion? After the ball is released, what can the pitcher's arm do?

Well, because he's taken a run up, it's not like he can stop. He's got to follow through, but he has to get off the pitch after a reasonable number of steps, because running on it with studs roughs it up.