I went to a ritual event the locals call a 'ball game.' While there I partook of the sacred food (being a footlong dawg with mustard and ketchup.)
What I observed was interesting, and seemed to involve a lot of setup for a scant moment's energetic interaction between a ball and a randomising device called a bat. The purpose of this interaction was to distribute the ball among the gathered faithful sitting in the bleachers.
I captured some of this ritual here: http://goo.gl/FkG2Vm
At the conclusion of the event, apparently two bases were "loaded" at the bottom of the ninth, a base hit was achieved, with two strikes and one out to go, at this point the guy on second (whose name may or may not have been "Watt") decided to go home.
Those assembled erupted in joyous celebration, as their Padres had won. All agreed it was a good match.
There's also a sub-ritual called a 7th innings stretch, which entails the communal singing of a song celebrating the tribe's special relationship with their local deity. I attempted to video it, but didn't want to appear too interested, as such scrutiny may mark one as a tourist, and the tribe is at war on tourism.
Cricket is even more mysterious to the uninitiated!
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely correct, Kevin. So I found this simple explanation of cricket for the uninitiated:
ReplyDelete* You have two sides, one out in the field and one in.
* Each man that's in the side that's in goes out, and when he's out he comes in and the next man goes in until he's out.
* When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's been in goes out and tries to get those coming in, out.
* Sometimes you get men still in and not out. When a man goes out to go in, the men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in and the next man in goes out and goes in.
* There are two men called umpires who stay out all the time and they decide when the men who are in are out.
* When both sides have been in and all the men have out, and both sides have been out twice after all the men have been in, including those who are not out, that is the end of the game!