Mostly, baseball is played in a quadrant within the foul lines. Even though, the official minimum distance allowed from the far edge of fair territory to the home plate is about 76.2 meters. The recommended distance can reach a maximum distance of about 99 meters approximately, along the foul lines and about 121 meters in the center field. This results in just about one lakh square feet of fair territory field area. The field territory areas of most Major League Baseball fields go to a range of 1, 10,000 to 1, 20,000 square feet. On the contrary, both the test cricket and one-day international cricket are played on cricket fields of minimum 128 meters width and having at least 130 meters of length. This gives the minimum area to be somewhere around 1, 40,500 square feet. While, the baseball field is roughly a square, the cricket fields are usually elliptical in shape. However, there are no fixed shapes for cricket grounds. Most of the test cricket grounds vary in the range of about 1, 75,000 square feet to a maximum area of about 2,07,000 square feet.
Batsmen v/s Strikers:
The main difference between cricket bat and baseball bat is that, while cricket bats are broad and flat, the baseball bats are mostly contracted and round in shape. The shape makes it easier for cricket batsmen to hit and provide direction to the ball. On the other hand, baseball batsmen do not have that much good striking power. Thanks to the ban on the bodyline tactics employed by the bowlers, batsmen can now use a wide array of batting strokes, in order to direct the ball in a wide range of directions, as the cricket field gives more open space than a baseball field. There is no hard and fast rule upon the batsmen to attempt to run after each stroke but, they need to hit the ball in order to prevent the stumps from uprooting. Most of the strokes employed by the batsmen are defensive in nature, as against the offensive strokes of a baseball striker. In baseball, while some strikers do have the ability to hit hard at the baseball, the pitcher is the one who has much more influence in directing the course of the game.
Miscellaneous:
Both baseball and cricket have a huge fan following and their numbers are increasing day by day. Both baseball and cricket are popular games, and it is unfair to compare these games with regards their pros and cons.
