Some things simply don’t translate. I’m Canadian and was totally mystified by the Daniel Day Lewis/Michael Caine cricket movie The Yorker was a Golden Duck (1997). Good thing I read the novelization.
If there were, we’d probably call them ‘recorded sports coverage’ 
Thanks (and to jsc1953 also) for being polite!
I understand the difference between top and bottom now.
I knew about catching, because you can feel the crowd’s excitement when the batter puts one in the air.
So you courteous American chaps don’t have to answer questions like these:
What is the difference between a short leg and a long leg?
Why would it matter if you tried to hit a Chinaman before an lbw appeal?
Why does cricket take 5 days?*
*actually this one baffles me too.
American sports seem to be well packaged, with the comfort and enjoyment of the spectator a top priority.
And we want commentators of the quality of John Madden! 
Well were I live in Australia every kid that went to school would have played at least one game of baseball or softball or teeball, so the average Aussie knows the core rules. Baseball films aren’t really shown by many places, but most video stores pick up any sucessfull ones and lots of baseball films get shown on TV.
I never noticed any baseball movie broadcasted here on TV, nor showed in movie theaters. I assume that the movie industry and the TV broadcasters know fairly well there wouldn’t be a public for these movies. So, it’s not even that I don’t get them…it’s that they’re non-existent.
However, I watched once a movie (can’t remember the name) which was about a former baseball player. The story wasn’t about baseball, though, but about the character of the aging player and his relation with the journalist trying to write a book about his life, so it explains why it was broadcasted. Necessarily, there was comments about baseball during the movie, and also several flash-backs of the former star playing baseball. And no, I didn’t get it. I had no clue what the guy was doing. He would run and did various mysterious things and the public would cheer him for these things, but I absolutely didn’t understand what it was all about. Fortunately, it wasn’t necessary to enjoy the movie.
Let’s turn this around, then.
I live in the suburbs of New York City, I’m an American born and raised, I have no problem understanding the sports depicted in Field of Dreams, 61* or A League of Their Own. Baseball is in my blood.
However, Mrs. Dave-Guy and I love to watch “Brit-coms” on PBS on Friday and Saturday evenings. Shows like Keeping Up Appearances, As Time Goes By, etc. Very entertaining. And sometimes a bit of terminology, sports-related or otherwise, causes us to wrinkle our brows, but it rarely impinges on our enjoyment of the show as a whole, or even a particular scene. Maybe we’ll miss out on a joke, but…
Now…there was a British program (or should I say “programme”?) called Outside Edge that we also enjoyed. It was centered on the relationships within a cricket club, and certain terms and activities left us baffled, but we continued to enjoy the show. You see, it was a show about people, not about cricket. Granted, the people played cricket and discussed cricket, and perhaps cricket was a metaphor for life and relationships in the context of the show, but it wasn’t a show about cricket (otherwise, every episode would have lasted an entire weekend, wot?).
Baseball is just the scenic dressing for any dramatic showing about people. Just as Harry Potter isn’t about witchcraft and magic, but about the relationships between schoolchildren, and Gone With The Wind isn’t about the American Civil War, but about deceit and love and facing adversity.
Baseball is just what happens in these movies, it’s not what the movies are about.
I’m in England, like Glee, and it’s pretty much as he said. We can understand the baseball movies, and the basic rules of the game, but the finer points will probably always elude comprehension!
There are other features of American culture and society which crop up in movies all the time and which some Americans don’t seem to appreciate are not universals. There are times when I think if I see one more sitcom or movie which revolves around ‘the high school Prom’ I will retch. Okay, it’s not hard to work out that it’s some kind of big party that high school kids can go to, but there’s no direct equivalent over here and so at times I tend to think, Christ on a stick, can’t you find somethng else to hang a plot on? Is there nothing else teenagers do or worry about or prepare for? Sheesh…
That’s easy. You can run faster if you’ve got a long leg than a short leg. At least, if the other one matches. If you’ve got one of each, I imagine that you wouldn’t run very fast at all ;).
And ianzin, the Prom is a big dance, hosted by the school, at the end of the school year. It might be in the gymnasium, but nowadays it’s more likely that the school rents a party center or the like. Typically, only juniors and seniors (11th and 12th grade: About 17 or 18 years old) get to go, unless you’re asked by a junior or senior. Some people are heartbroken if they can’t get a date, some folks just show up anyway by themselves and have fun, and some don’t care and just stay home. All in all, it’s a pretty good context to show teen angst, heartbreak, jealousy, drama, etc.
I’ve heard the baseball-rounders-child’s game connection many times before; it makes me feel that our beloved National Pastime is something like professional Dodge Ball. 
Very good. Now do “silly point” and “silly mid off”.
That one scene in particular is probably better understood if you a baseball fan however. Not like it’s a masterpiece of a movie in the first place, but without the subtlety that scene would lose a bit I’d imagine. The history of the ‘called shot’, the knock-down pitches, and the irony of an aging catcher with bad knees bunting for a hit, just seem fairly inside.
You and me both.
That was probably Cobb, with Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Wuhl. It was a pretty good movie, and just for background, Ty Cobb was one of the best, and most verstile players in Baseball history. He was also on of the meanest bastards to ever walk the planet, which is why he is an interesting subject.
Oh, sure, I have no doubt dedicated baseball fans enjoy baseball movies more than people who aren’t fans of the sport, but the question was wether they could enjoy it at all.
Now, now!
Chronos was very polite about explaining baseball terminology, so to mess him about in return - well, it’s just not cricket! :smack:
Chronos,
short leg, long leg, silly point and silly mid off are all fielding positions on a cricket field.
Do you want me to explain ‘why would it matter if you tried to hit a Chinaman before an lbw appeal’?
Ooooh, more baseball jargon for us foreigners!
Called shot = the batter chappie announces what he’s going to do - by pointing with his ‘stick’? (presumably ‘thrashing the ball out of the stadium’ would be especially provocative :eek: )
Knock-down pitch = this is more difficult. I know a pitch is a throw by the pitcher. But if you just block, presumably so some teammate can run, that’s a bunt.
OK, I’ll try ‘a pitch you can’t do much with.’ (I’m not satisfied with that, because there’s some area you’ve got to pitch into, but I have no other ideas.)
Aging catcher = the bloke who normally fields behind the batter is getting on a bit. ;j
Bunting for a hit = well, I defined bunt already. OK, I say a hit is when the batter makes contact with the ball. (But then any successful bunt is automatically a hit.)
OK, tell me the facts!
Very good.
Good guess, but no. A knock-down pitch is a pitch intentionally thrown at the batter’s head, for purposes of intimidation or retaliation. Not sporting, but it happens.
Good.
Even non-foreigners have difficulty with the definition of “hit”–it’s not just hitting ball with stick; it has to be a hit that allows the batter to reach base safely. Doing this by bunting is difficult; it requires perfect placement of the bunted ball, and good speed by the batter.
Cricket fielding positions. I don’t claim to be any sort of cricketing expert, but I suspect the three “silly” positions are so named because they’re silly places to stand - either they offer you little chance of catching a ball, or an excellent chance of catching one, very hard, in your teeth…
Thanks for your explanations.
The equivalent of a ‘knock-down pitch’ in cricket is a bouncer (the ball bounces up at the batsman’s body, travelling at about 90 miles per hour :eek: ). The bowler is limited in how often he can use a bouncer.
If the pitcher is judged to have deliberately hit the batter, is it a free walk to first base?
Ah, Runs Batted In! (I presume)
Well because of the layout of baseball, I assume it’s best for the batter to hit the ball (safely) to his right, so the throw to 4th base (home base?) is longer.
(Or to bunt so the pitcher can’t field the ball quickly…)
This layout of course discriminates against left-handed batters, and I will be taking this up with the US courts later.
If the batter is hit, intentionally or not, he is awarded first base. If the umpire feels he was hit intentionally, he can eject the pitcher from the game.
Just when you were doing so well…
Nothing to do with Runs Batted In.
If a ball is hit within the infield (the 90 ft square marked by the 4 bases), the batter will more often then not be put out, by a defensive player fielding the ball and throwing to first base. A ball hit to the left requires a longer throw, and therefore affords the batter a few microseconds more time to reach first base.
And actually, left-handed batters are two steps closer to first base, and therefore have a slight advantage.
And since, as a general rule. left-handed batters hit right-handed pitchers, and since there are more right-handed pitchers in baseball, lefty hitters are in demand. There are actually a larger percentage of lefties in baseball than in the general population.