Sports
Explaining cricket to a baseball expert… now that the U.S. is apparently good at it
I watch grown men in pajamas hit balls with sticks, and then I write about it.
This is my job. It’s how I afford food and shelter. Some people are experts at cardiology or architecture or cooking or fixing automobiles, but not me. I’ve devoted my whole life to grown men in pajamas hitting balls with sticks, and I’m an expert in it. The world doesn’t need baseball writers, but I’m sure glad that they want them.
However, as a baseball writer, it’s extremely frustrating for me to watch cricket. Shouldn’t my expertise in grown men in pajamas hitting balls with sticks translate to that sport, too? It’s like a chef being an expert when it comes to cooking food in pans, only to be completely confused by pots. Aren’t they basically the same thing? How can baseball and cricket be so different, and why can’t I wrap my mind around the latter?
There’s no time like the present to figure this out, with the United States shocking Pakistan in one of the greatest upsets in the history of the sport. It’s time to learn about this version of pajama stickball, so I enlisted The Athletic’s Richard Sutcliffe, a keen cricket fan when he is not covering Wrexham and Sheffield United, to answer some questions.
I learned a lot, and maybe you will too.
Grant Brisbee: Back in the summer of 2001, I was unemployed and “searching” for a job, while also collecting unemployment. I used this time to write the Great American Novel download a bunch of video games and play them all day. I was particularly obsessed with International Cricket on the NES because I was determined to learn the rules of cricket from it.
Even though it was the best idea (and summer) I’ve ever had, it didn’t work. So now I’m here to bother you.
Richard Sutcliffe: I think we’ve all had a summer or three like that. I’m probably a bit older than you and distinctly remember playing a Spectrum 48K (told you I was getting on a bit….) game about Formula One. I had no idea about the rules, even when it came to how many points each driver earned, but still loved it. As for cricket, I can see why it’s a game that confuses, even when playing International Cricket as much as you did, Grant. How much did you pick up?
Brisbee: Very, very little. You might say that I picked up absolutely nothing at all.
I guess I’ll start with what confused me the most, which is the people running back and forth. Who are these folks? Why are they running between the sticks? Is there a way to stop them? When I looked up what a wicket was, I read a description of “sticky wickets”, which seemed to suggest that the people running were carrying the sticks back and forth. That can’t be true, can it?
The runners. I think we should start with the how and why.
Scotland’s George Munsey and Michael Jones run between the wickets against England (Matthew Lewis-ICC/ICC via Getty Images)
Sutcliffe: To break cricket down, and using a bit of my very limited baseball dialogue, the aim of the batting team is to score as many runs as possible. The bowling side, equivalent of the pitcher in baseball, aim to bowl the opposition out by taking 10 wickets, achieved usually by hitting the stumps or catching the batter out.
The batting team score runs by either hitting the ball to the boundary rope for four runs (six runs if your shot clears the rope without bouncing) or by running between the two sets of stumps — the ‘sticks’ of that lost summer of 2001 — after hitting the ball. Every time the two batters run between the stumps is one run. Again a bit like baseball, when the batter is running from base to base, the fielding side can run a batter out if they hit the stumps before the batter gets home. Not sure how clear that is. I might have even confused myself!
Brisbee: So are the runners there in place from the start of play?
Sutcliffe: Each team has 11 players. The opening pair — numbers one and two in the lineup — will go into bat first and they’ll both run between the stumps to score a run. Once one of those is out, batter number three comes in. And he joins the remaining batter to do the running between the stumps. This continues all the way until the 10th batter is out, meaning a team is ‘all out’. Then it’s the opposition’s turn to have a bat.
Brisbee: Clear as a plate of spotted dick. I guess the logical follow-up question is, how do the players make ‘outs’? Are the defending players trying to hit them in the head with the ball? Please tell me they’re trying to hit them in the head with the ball. That sounds awesome.
England’s Ben Stokes is hit in the head with the ball (Anthony Devlin/AFP via Getty Images)
Sutcliffe: The most spectacular way for a batter to be out is when the bowler sends the ball flying past the bat to shatter the three stumps. There’s something beautiful about seeing a stump or two knocked out of the ground at pace!
To try to soften a batter up, a fast bowler will, indeed, bowl very short from time to time so the ball bounces up and arrows straight for the head. The batter’s job is then to either duck out of the way (the sensible option) or try to hit the ball (brave, but stupid). Thankfully, the protective headgear that batters wear these days means injuries are very rare. But it does add to the drama.
Brisbee: And the best possible bowl, in theory, is one that bounces right at the feet of the … paddle man … without going past and becoming an illegal bowl?
Sutcliffe: That’s right. Ping the ball at the toes of a batter — though I do like ‘paddle man’! — and then get ready for the stumps to go tumbling out of the ground.
Brisbee: Do the stumps actually fly out and have to be reset?
Sutcliffe: In the days of the great West Indies team in the 1980s and 1990s), the stumps could fly 10 or 15 yards such was the pace that they bowled at. Then, yes, the stumps have to be put back in place complete with two bails on top.
Brisbee: That sounds awesome. They should make the batter reset them for a bit of extra humiliation.
England’s Graham Dilley loses his leg stump to a blistering Malcolm Marshall delivery in 1988 (PA Images via Getty Images)
When it comes to baseball, fans have an obsession with power. There’s nothing better for most fans than when the ball leaves the field of play (a home run). When it comes to pitchers (our bowlers), there’s a particular fascination with the pitchers who can throw 100 miles per hour (161kmph) and blow it past the batters.
Is there a similar fascination with balls that leave the field of play and extremely fast bowlers? Or is there much more to the game than that?
Sutcliffe: Cricket is very similar in that respect to baseball. Your ‘home run’ is the equivalent of a six in cricket, in that the batter’s shot leaves the field of play — and the crowd laps it up.
Same with the bowlers and the speeds they achieve. My local ground is Headingley and when England play a one-day match here, the giant screen will tell the crowd how fast each ball has been. Anything over 90mph and, again, there’s a big roar.
There’s all sorts of other aspects, particularly when bowling. Such as whether the ball swings in the air or if it spins to fool a batsman. But, the long and short of it is fans, particularly at one-day games, crave speed and power.
England’s Mark Wood sends down a 90mph thunderbolt (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
Brisbee: That’s good. I was scared that only Americans were going to be into the big, dumb, powerful things because we’re all like Kevin Kline in “A Fish Called Wanda”, but it seems that there are definitely some commonalities.
One of the cool things about the sport, in my opinion, is that there’s no foul territory. In baseball, if a batter hits the ball directly behind him, it’s a foul ball, and he or she will see another pitch. In cricket, it looks like a ball directly behind the batter is in play. Are there strategies that take advantage of this? As in, are there players who are known for their ability to hit the ball directly behind them?
Sutcliffe: Top film reference, by the way. A true classic. “Don’t call me stupid!” was a catchphrase me and my mates used for a good few years. I also believe the John Cleese character would have been a big cricket fan. He just seemed the sort! Anyway, I digress.
Yeah, you’re right, about the ball being in play, regardless of whether the batter plays it in front or behind themselves.
In recent years, it’s become an increasingly valuable skill to be able to play behind as, usually, there are fewer fielders trying to stop the ball reaching the boundary (earning four runs).
Wayne Madsen plays a “ramp” shot past wicketkeeper Lewis McManus (David Rogers/Getty Images)
Brisbee: Here’s a screenshot of that video game. What in the fresh heck could possibly be going on here? Can the fielders really get that close to the batter? Do they get hit in the face with batted balls regularly?
Sutcliffe: Oh yes, fielders can get very, very close to a batter. It’s a dangerous position to be, even with the helmets and padding that those fielding so close will wear.
I’ve actually seen a batter be out when his shot cannoned off a fielder standing three yards away and ballooned up in the air for another fielder to catch the ball. As it hadn’t hit the ground after being hit, the poor, unlucky batter was out caught.
Fielding so close also allows for plenty of the, er, ‘banter’ that cricketers enjoy.
Australia’s Wayne Phillips is out caught by David Gower (holding the ball) after his shot rebounded off Allan Lamb (right) (PA Images via Getty Images)
Brisbee: I’ve heard rumors of matches that last for days. Literal days. What’s the deal with those? Both baseball and American football have reputations for being extremely long games, but nothing compared to that.
Sutcliffe: A Test match is a maximum of five days long. And it might then finish as a draw. Which I know, from experience when talking to friends from the U.S., is totally unfathomable to some.
I’m one of those who still loves Test cricket and can happily spend days watching it. But cricket is increasingly moving to the shorter form of the game, such as the T20 World Cup where the U.S. recently beat Pakistan. Each side bats once and the match lasts no more than three hours. It’s this form of cricket that will be in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
Brisbee: Y’all make fun of American baseball players for wearing giant gloves on their catching hands, don’t you?
Sutcliffe: Not so much baseball, other than tagging the term ‘World Series’ on to a sport where only the U.S. and Canada seems to compete. But there were a few eyebrows raised on this side of the pond about the padding that American footballers wear. We have rugby over here, where there’s similar bone-shuddering tackles going in, but all they have in terms of protection is a gum-shield.
Australia’s Travis Head smashes a six (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
I do think, though, that times are changing and there’s now much more of an appreciation of American sports.
That said, I was on holiday in San Francisco a couple of years ago. We decided to take in a Giants game against Kansas City (I think the tickets were $8 as we were up high behind the batsman). I really enjoyed the spectacle and the views across the Bay — it was a sunny June evening — were spectacular. But, maybe a bit like yourself with cricket, I didn’t have a scooby (doo – clue) as to how the scoring went.
I got the rudimentary bits, like the need to get from base to base and the joy of a home run. It’s just how San Francisco won 6-2 that I couldn’t fathom. I still enjoyed myself, mind. Probably because I love sports. And I’m a sucker for a cracking sunset view.
Brisbee: Yeah, I’d be surprised if I saw the Giants score six runs, too.
Alright, I think I understand a lot more about the game than when I started, and I’ll have to check out a match soon. First, though, I have to ask about this.
In my summer of unemployment, I was obsessed with figuring out what this meant. First question: What does it mean? Second question: Are there any other awesome cricket terms? Because this one rules.
He looks so sad.
Sutcliffe: Sadly, I’ve known how he feels far too many times over the years.
Basically, he’s out without managing to score even a solitary run. Its origins are quite simple in that a duck’s egg is oval, just like the figure ‘0’. There’s also a variation where a batter is out for a ‘golden duck’. That meant they faced just one ball before being dismissed. The ultimate humiliation.
Brisbee: When someone is out for a golden duck, does a giant disembodied hand grab him and drop him in the gully, like this?
Sutcliffe: If that doesn’t appear, then the makers of International Cricket really missed a trick!
Brisbee: I’ve learned a lot today, and I’m eager to catch a match now. Or a game. A set. A match-game.
There’s still so much to learn.
Thanks for putting up with my stupid cricket questions, Richard!
Sutcliffe: It’s been a pleasure. Enjoyed it. And next time I’m in the Bay area, hopefully you can teach me the finer points of baseball that continue to evade me despite that 2022 visit to Oracle Park.
(Top photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
Sports
Florida AG launches civil rights investigation into MLB’s warning to Christian pitchers over Pride Night caps
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The attorneys general from Missouri and Florida have reacted strongly to the controversy stirred when Major League Baseball warned three San Francisco Giants players about inscribing a Bible verse on their Pride Night caps, and that reaction includes MLB being served with a subpoena that signals the launch of an official investigation.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier launched his investigation on Friday by serving MLB with a subpoena to investigate whether it is violating the civil rights of players based on their religious beliefs.
The general purpose and scope of Florida’s investigation “extend(s) to possible civil rights and deceptive and unfair trade practices violations in matters of employment concerning the business practices, policies, and procedures of Major League Baseball,” per the subpoena obtained by Fox News Digital.
In a letter from Uthmeier to MLB Commissioner Robert Manfred, the AG warns that “a pattern or practice of selectively enforcing its rules to benefit favored secular beliefs over disfavored religious beliefs would not only potentially violate Florida civil rights law, but it would also violate the League’s own policies.
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL FACES BACKLASH FOR ITS STANCE ON CHRISTIANS WRITING BIBLE VERSES ON PRIDE CAPS
“And a practice of claiming not to discriminate based on religion while discriminating based on religion could further amount to an unfair or deceptive trade practice in violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.”
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier speaks at a news conference in Orlando on July 15, 2025, where he said U.S. Masters Swimming should not allow transgender athletes to compete against women swimmers or face legal action. Advocates Cassidy Carlisle and Lainey Armistead also attended. (Rich Pope/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service)
Uthmeier is particularly troubled by the fact MLB said its warning had nothing to do with the players’ religious beliefs but rather was strictly because of a violation of the league’s uniform code.
It should be noted MLB said in a follow-up statement to its initial warning to the players that it was merely enforcing its uniform codes and the warning had nothing to do with Giants pitchers Landen Roupp, JT Brubaker and Ryan Walker writing a Bible verse on the team’s Pride Night Cap most of the other players wore.
MLB ACCUSED OF ‘DOUBLE STANDARD’ AFTER CALLING OUT PLAYERS’ BIBLE MESSAGES DESPITE BACKING BLM IN 2020
Uthmeier noted that doesn’t ring true and presented in his letter a handful of examples where MLB has been absolutely fine with players adding to their uniform.
“In 2019, for example, a Cincinnati Reds player wrote on his cap in tribute to a nearby mass shooting,” Uthmeier wrote to Manfred. “And in 2020, MLB evidently added new, sweeping exceptions to its uniform rules by allowing players to ‘support social justice and diversity and inclusion.’ These policy changes included permitting players to add Black Lives Matter patches to their sleeves.
“MLB therefore appears to applaud — even change its rules for — the ideological beliefs it prefers, but targets players who express religious views the League doesn’t like.”
Commissioner of Major League Baseball Robert D. Manfred Jr. speaks at the 2024 MLB Draft presented by Nike at Cowtown Coliseum in Fort Worth, Texas, on July 14, 2024. (Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
The Florida subpoena, issued under the Florida Civil Rights Act, demands action from MLB on July 23, 2026, at 9 a.m.. At that time, MLB must deliver to the AG’s office documents including:
- All documents concerning how MLB characterized or classified the June 2026 cap writing, including, for example, whether MLB treated it as religious expression, political messaging, protest, or a violation unrelated to its content.
- All documents concerning what prompted MLB’s review of and warning regarding the June 2026 cap writing, including any complaint, media inquiry, internal escalation, or third-party communication received before the warning issued, and the timing of each relative to the warning.
- All documents concerning the actual June 2026 warnings issued by the MLB to any club.
- All documents, including drafts and internal deliberations, concerning MLB’s decision to issue and publicly announce the June 2026 warnings, and any analysis of whether doing so adhered to the Code or with MLB’s treatment of comparable non-religious expression.
San Francisco Giants pitcher Landen Roupp wrote “Genesis 9:12-16” on his Pride-Night themed hat. (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
Uthmeier is thus joining Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, who recently wrote a letter to Manfred asking the commissioner to confirm that no player who has chosen to refrain from “wearing Pride Month paraphernalia or included Bible verses on Pride Month hats” will not be disciplined in any way.
Hanaway’s letter states that if Manfred fails to answer by June 25 or does not confirm that no discipline will be levied, she too will open an investigation of MLB.
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The two attorneys general have authority over their individual states. But it affects four MLB teams.
Florida is home to two MLB teams — the Tampa Bay Rays and Miami Marlins — while Missouri is home to the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals.
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Sports
Commentary: Why MLB’s Pride Night cap condemnation isn’t the anti-Christian crackdown conservatives claim
Amid the first days of grief after Alex Vesia and his wife lost their newborn daughter last fall, Vesia noticed something as he watched the World Series on television. He paused the broadcast, then checked the video, then texted another player to make sure.
51.
Dodgers teammates wore his number on their caps. So did players from the Toronto Blue Jays.
“It was awesome,” Vesia said. “It was a very heartwarming moment.”
Moving.
Touching.
And, under baseball’s rules, illegal.
Who knew, really, until this week? Three pitchers from the San Francisco Giants wrote the name of a Bible verse on their Pride Night caps and, amid an uproar, Major League Baseball said it had warned the players that “writing of any kind, with any message” on any playing apparel is not permitted. The issue, the league said in a statement, was not what they wrote on their caps but simply that they wrote on them at all.
Said MLB in the statement: “We have given the same warning numerous times in the past to players for messages such as ‘Dad’, ‘Happy Mother’s Day, I Love Mom’ and names of family members.”
To its credit, the league did not enforce the rule when Vesia’s number started appearing on caps in the World Series. But, if you’re going to draw a line on enforcement, where should you draw it?
In San Francisco, the actions of the Giants’ pitchers were widely condemned.
“They were in for a rude awakening with the response, and it wasn’t just from the gay community,” Giants broadcaster and former pitcher Mike Krukow told KNBR, the team’s flagship radio station. “It was from the Northern California community that supports the gay community.”
In response to media inquiries, and as first reported by Outsports, MLB confirmed it had warned the three players. I asked the league whether warnings had been issued in two other instances in which players had written on their caps, including Clayton Kershaw last year writing the same Bible verse on his Pride Night cap that the Giants’ pitchers wrote this year. MLB declined to comment.
“I got chastised by the league when I put Charlie [Kirk]’s name on my hat last year, because a man was murdered in cold blood,” Dodgers pitcher Blake Treinen told me, “and now these gentlemen who are relievers in San Francisco are getting chastised by the league for putting a Bible verse on their hat. It’s crazy to me.”
Treinen said league officials had told him the rule is strictly enforced.
“I straight up asked Clayton last year, ‘Did they call you when you put that on your hat?’” Treinen said. “He said, ‘No.’”
The Pride caps feature team logos decorated in the colors of the rainbow, a symbol long associated with the gay community. In the Bible verse cited by the pitchers (Genesis 9:12-16), the rainbow represents “the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures.”
That the league would warn players against writing a Bible verse on their caps ignited a wave of conservative outrage, from Vice President JD Vance to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley fired off a letter to MLB commissioner Rob Manfred, alleging apparent discrimination “against baseball players who profess their Christian faith” and threatening the league’s antitrust exemption. Assistant U.S. Atty. Gen. Harmeet Dhillon said on national television that players might be able to file a claim for employment discrimination.
That is complete nonsense. This is what you want: When employees raise an issue to their employer, the employer listens and addresses their concerns.
In 2023, the year after five Tampa Bay Rays players declined to wear rainbow logos for Pride Night, Manfred said the league would no longer compel players to do so.
“We have told teams, in terms of actual uniforms, hats, bases that we don’t think putting logos on them is a good idea just because of the desire to protect players: not putting them in a position of doing something that may make them uncomfortable because of their personal views,” Manfred said then.
Teammates congratulate Freddie Freeman after his walk-off home run gave the Dodgers a 1-0 win on June 5, when the Dodgers held their annual Pride Night. Blake Treinen, the winning pitcher that night, elected to wear his regular Dodgers cap instead of the Pride version.
(Katelyn Mulcahy / Getty Images)
Manfred said the Pride Night celebrations could go on, however a team wished to stage them — or not, in the case of the Texas Rangers, the only one of the 30 MLB teams that declines to hold a Pride Night. And the league still sells Pride gear on its website for all teams, including the Rangers.
In the cases of the Giants and Dodgers, MLB grandfathered each team’s long-running use of a rainbow logo on the cap, with this accommodation to players: If you don’t feel comfortable wearing the Pride cap, just wear your regular cap.
That is what Treinen and outfielder Alex Call did when the Dodgers celebrated Pride Night. That is also what a fourth Giants pitcher did.
“My job is to abide by the rules,” Treinen said. “Ultimately, the only rule we have is to wear our team-issued uniform. So that’s what I chose to do.”
To Treinen, the decision over whether to wear a Pride cap is not about passing judgment on anyone else but about what he sees as the push “to force something on people that you know that is controversial to their faith — and, in fact, straight up against their faith.”
He expressed his support for the Giants pitchers.
“Kudos to those men over there who are standing strong in their faith,” he said. “It’s a sad thing to corner someone and try to make them feel bad about their convictions.”
I respect Treinen for explaining his viewpoint. To me, wearing a Pride cap for one night does not diminish your faith at all. It might sharpen your convictions. More important, it signals a welcome to everyone in the community that buys the tickets and broadcast subscriptions that help pay your salary.
“I think a few people made it about themselves and not about the community,” San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie told the Bay Area Reporter.
We always proclaim the life lessons of sports. One of them: Sometimes you have to put the team’s interests ahead of your own.
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After its massive 1-0 win over South Korea on Thursday night, Mexico has won Group A and officially clinched a spot in the knockout round.
El Tri will play its Round of 32 game in Mexico City, and will face the third-place finisher in either Group C/E/F/H/I.
This is the fourth time that Mexico has topped the group stage of a World Cup, with the other three coming in 1986, 1994 and 2002.
With the win, Mexico remains unbeaten in World Cup group games at home, going a combined 6-2-0 (W-D-L), with two wins and a draw in 1970 and 1986, and now two wins in 2026.
Before the tournament began, Mexico was listed at +6500 to win the World Cup. Now, after winning its first two games of the tournament, Mexico has surged up the oddsboard to +5000.
Can Mexico build off its first two matches and make a deep run in this tournament? Let’s check out the updated odds for El Tri as of June 19.
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Team Mexico — Stage of Elimination
Last 32: +125 (bet $10 to win $22.50 total)
Last 16: +135 (bet $10 to win $23.50 total)
Quarterfinals: +600 (bet $10 to win $70 total)
Semifinals: +1600 (bet $10 to win $170 total)
Runner-up: +3000 (bet $10 to win $310 total)
Outright winner: +5000 (bet $10 to win $510 total)
Mexico is currently +5000 to win the 2026 FIFA World Cup after winning Group A (Getty Images).
Mexico’s Past World Cup Results:
1930: Group stage
1934: Did not qualify
1938: Withdrew
1950: Group stage
1954: Group stage
1958: Group stage
1962: Group stage
1966: Group stage
1970: Quarterfinals
1974: Did not qualify
1978: Group stage
1982: Did not qualify
1986: Quarterfinals
1990: Banned
1994: Round of 16
1998: Round of 16
2002: Round of 16
2006: Round of 16
2010: Round of 16
2014: Round of 16
2018: Round of 16
2022: Group stage
2026: TBD
What to know: Mexico has made a habit of being in the running, but never really being in the running. Make sense? Consider this: El Tri made it out of the group stage in seven consecutive World Cups (1994-2018), but never made it past the Round of 16 in any of those years. In 2022, Mexico failed to make it out of the group stage, and it will look to get back to its winning ways in 2026 after a great start to the tournament. With its win Thursday night, Mexico has now advanced to the knockout stage in eight of the last nine World Cups. It is important to note, however, that Mexico has never made it past the quarterfinals at a FIFA men’s World Cup.
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