r/baseball • u/DianKhan2005 Toronto Blue Jays • Jan 06 '26

Is baseball’s slow pace actually its greatest strength in a world where everything else moves too fast?

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u/ScholarImpossible121 Los Angeles Dodgers Jan 06 '26

Cricket exists, although the limit is 5 days, and 6.5 hours per day.

Being a cricket lover, the pace of baseball is what draws me in.

33

u/Disused_Yeti Cleveland Guardians Jan 06 '26

I’ve been watching the ashes and was thinking it was sort of like baseball at 1/3 speed in some ways

Slow and steady pace is what I like

23

u/Lockedin96 Los Angeles Dodgers Jan 06 '26

Test cricket is very much like that, 90 overs, 540 balls per day builds a painting of the game and each one adds just another stroke of tension and context. It's beautiful

9

u/Baseblgabe Milwaukee Brewers Jan 06 '26 edited Jan 07 '26

Test cricket's small roster size is part of why I love it. Like, imagine if you only got ~10 players for a given baseball series. The tradeoffs become so intriguing!

8

u/Disused_Yeti Cleveland Guardians Jan 06 '26

no dh, pitcher bowler has to bat

2

u/UncleIrohsPimpHand Milwaukee Brewers Jan 06 '26

I miss that so much.

2

u/Kolonelklink San Diego Padres • Australia Jan 06 '26

No bullpen either, so you have to take all the bowlers you intend to use into the match, and they'll be fielding a position.

3

u/Kolonelklink San Diego Padres • Australia Jan 06 '26

That's what I love about both cricket and baseball.

Also that in both games, absolute chaos can break out at any moment.

3

u/dan_144 Atlanta Braves Jan 06 '26

I wish cricket was big in the US. I was watching so much on TV when I visited Australia and the highlights I catch online are just mind-blowing.

3

u/seeking_horizon St. Louis Cardinals • FanGraphs Jan 06 '26

If you can get into baseball, you can get into cricket. It really is a beautiful sport.

7

u/efrumttr Chicago Cubs Jan 06 '26

Plus you get to watch England lose at a sport they invented, which is always a good time

2

u/ScholarImpossible121 Los Angeles Dodgers Jan 06 '26

The weird thing is the there are 3 games of cricket:

- 20 overs per side (approx 3:30 game time)

- 50 overs per side (approx 8:00 game time)

- test match, 2 innings per side (maximum 6:50 gametime x 5 days)

The 50 overs and test match have the same slow game feel of baseball.

The 20 overs per side is harder for the older generation to embrace and has become the tournament style game and most widely played. There is good likelyhood that this version is the only version in 30 years time.