I was very tempted to take my Freedom Pass and go out to Stratford; it looks wonderful on BBC Sport. Go Yankees! Did any regulars attend? I love baseball; my favourite sport.

Great game too - no errors! Loads of runs. Great final play for fans. Almost 5 hours. Hey - I LOVE baseball.

I'm a huge baseball fan too, JK. Seeing Mets vs Phillies at Shea stadium (a long time ago!) was a fabulous introduction to the second best game in the world.

But almost 5 hours for a game? Fine by me – 5 days better – but the cricketing authorities insist that even 3 hours is too long.

Once (in Yankee Stadium) I was at a game that lasted into the small hours!

TWO great games; hopefully the 120,000 who came to watch now understand what a splendid game it is.

I would be interested in seeing baseball out of curiosity, but I don't think that I could go on a regular basis. You have to have some emotional involvement with team sports. Either your home town team or where you currently live. Watching teams thousands of miles away doesn't quite have the same impact.

Baseball is effectively a british sport. We call it rounders and it is played in most schools during the summer months, as it was in mine. It would usually be mixed teams, but never caught on as a spectator sport over here.

robbiex wrote:
I would be interested in seeing baseball out of curiosity, but I don't think that I could go on a regular basis. You have to have some emotional involvement with team sports. Either your home town team or where you currently live. Watching teams thousands of miles away doesn't quite have the same impact.

Baseball is effectively a british sport. We call it rounders and it is played in most schools during the summer months, as it was in mine. It would usually be mixed teams, but never caught on as a spectator sport over here.

My blood chills at the very mention of rounders.
I could never remember how to play it in school from one boring PE session to the next, and when they told me you run if you hit the ball, and run if you dont hit the ball, I asked "What's the point of the ball then?" and was sent to sit outside the headmaster's office.

Baseball is not rounders at all; how many home runs get hit in rounders? I wish the ignorant would stop comparing the two.

JK2006 wrote:
Baseball is not rounders at all; how many home runs get hit in rounders? I wish the ignorant would stop comparing the two.

I think I read somewhere that baseball is the older of the two, not the other way around as people assume?

Although baseball is a major sport in the US, its origins lie in Surrey, England, with the first recorded mention of 'bass-ball' being dated to 9th September 1749. from this report.

Of course, cricket and baseball are basically the same game, and almost certainly share a common root.