A former pitcher, Cardinal Gibbons senior Will Foy says the national pastime simply can't compare with the age-old sport of cricket.
"It's pretty much baseball, minus the boring parts," he said.
Despite its mainstream popularity in dozens of countries, cricket in the U.S. is largely viewed as a relic. More than a century after giving way to its American-born cousin, however, the sport is making a bit of a comeback, with Gibbons students such as Foy hoping to lead the way.
"There are a lot of people who might say: 'Oh, that sport is weird. ... I'm not interested.' But once they see it, they love it," Gibbons senior Justin Bruchey said.
Bruchey was among several students at the school who in April took part in a Civil War field trip to Richmond, Va. While there, they witnessed a live demonstration of the game.
Eager to form their own teams, 40 students signed up to play intramurally, paying $50 each. When the father of a Gibbons alum became aware of the interest, he went to a specialty store in Mumbai, India, while visiting relatives and had a pallet of cricket gear shipped to the school.
"Our boys were taught the game, and they all fell in love with it immediately," said Gibbons history teacher Jamie Harrison, who led the field trip. "The reason was that there were no balls and strikes, so you could just keep hitting and hitting. In baseball, it's easy to get outs and harder to get runs. In cricket, it's easy to score runs and hard to make outs."
First developed in England during the 1700s, the sport has some similarities to baseball, but there also are several striking differences. For one, the bulk of the action takes place in the center of a large grassy field, with no foul territory.
The pitcher, known as the bowler, uses a straight-armed, overhead motion to bounce the ball toward a wicket - three small wooden stumps placed in the ground - attempting to knock off a wooden crosspiece known as a "bail."
An offensive player, using a flat-headed bat, tries to defend the wicket by making contact with the ball. He continues to bat until he makes an out. Batters score by running back and forth between the wickets - which are 22 yards apart - while the ball is in play.
Contested under original rules, a match could go on for days, with scores in the hundreds. In more recent times, however, rules have placed limits on the number of throws taken by each team, making the sport more palatable for players and spectators.
