Gilchrist to play for the Boston Red Sox?

[Ducky]

Original article: here.

BATTING dynamo Adam Gilchrist has received an approach from the World Series baseball champion Boston Red Sox despite having played the game only once in his life.

Gilchrist's thunderous stroke play has echoed across the world to trigger the offer of a personalised assessment session in Australia to see whether his dynamic skills are transferable to a game he played only once as a 14-year-old in Lismore.

Australia's Olympic baseball coach Jon Deeble, the Red Sox first base coach and recruiting agent, informed the club of Gilchrist's freakish power play and triggered the expression of interest which they claim could be heightened when Gilchrist, 33, retires from cricket.

"We expressed interest in him and we think he has a lot of potential, and the club has tapes of him batting," Deeble said last night. "Boston has a payroll of $160million a year and it's something worth having a look at."

Gilchrist's manager Stephen Atkinson said no decision had been made on whether Gilchrist would accept the offer of a skills assessment session, most probably before pitchers and a pitching machine in Perth, and his prime focus was on the forthcoming Ashes series.

"Adam has taken this as a compliment," Atkinson said. "There are any number of collegiate players in America who would cut their non-pitching arm off to get a call from a major league team saying we would like to come down and have a look at you.

"Cricket remains his number one priority and the approach may not come to anything but it is genuine. If we did anything it would have to fit in with his cricket commitments.

"But it is not pub talk or someone day dreaming. It is this guy's job to identify players and he likes the look of Adam. Baseball people have been saying for years that Adam would be suitable to the sport."

The chances of Gilchrist switching codes are extremely remote but he is an open-minded character who enjoys fresh challenges.

Major league salaries dwarf those earned by Australia's top cricketers who earn around $1million a year from Cricket Australia and often as much again in sponsorship.

The average major league salary last season was $US2,555,476, according to figures released by The Associated Press. For the average baseball player in 2004, a night at the ball park brought in $15,000, or $5116 per hour for work.

New York Yankee Alex Rodriguez, arguably the league's best all-round player, is the highest paid, earning $US25,000,000 this year.

Mike Young, fielding coach with the Australian cricket team and a former Australian baseball coach, said several years ago that Gilchrist, Andrew Symonds and Matthew Hayden had major league potential had they started as youngsters in the sport.

"Had Adam played baseball as a youngster he would have had a real good shot at it," Young said. "I commend Boston for having an open mind but he is too old now. I don't think there is any chance he could make it."

Comments?

Personally, I would love to see Gilchrist playing baseball, even if only for a short amount of time.

[Onewood]

I would'nt like to lose him out of cricket....But the almighty Dollar can talk

[McMw]

geez...didn't some famous sportsman try his hand at baseball not too long ago, and had egg all over his face after a couple of seasons???

I believe his name was Michael something...



Gilly's got plenty of years left in him playing cricket...let's hope he doesn't fly off to na-na land with those flappers of his...

[AndyP]

At what age do players generally retire in baseball? (Jarro?)
If you can stay in the game longer than what you do in cricket, maybe it's something he could look at, at the end of his cricket career. Like a couple of Aussie Rules players have with NFL Punting.

[Jarro]

Gilchrist could still possibly make a fist of it in baseball after he retires from cricket ... those guys can play on until they're 40+ providing they don't get many serious injuries.

I think however he'd struggle to make much of an impact. they are 2 very different sports. Even though he is a terrific timer of the cricket ball .. trying to make solid contact with a 95Mph fast ball thrown from 60'6" away is not the easiest thing in the world

Money would be awesome though

[markTHEblake]

Even though he is a terrific timer of the cricket ball .. trying to make solid contact with a 95Mph fast ball thrown from 60'6" away is not the easiest thing in the world

would it make that much difference? many bowlers let em go at 95mph and from about 60 ft as well. The balls the same size too.

[terryand]

Even though he is a terrific timer of the cricket ball .. trying to make solid contact with a 95Mph fast ball thrown from 60'6" away is not the easiest thing in the world

would it make that much difference? many bowlers let em go at 95mph and from about 60 ft as well. The balls the same size too.

Only 2 that I know of

Terry.

[Ona]

personally i'd rather continue to be the best at what I do than take on a totally new challenge, but then without ever actually being the best, i cant say as that'd hold true

theres some balding V8 driver who's taking a chance and spreading his wings, will be watching that with interest.

[terryand]

personally i'd rather continue to be the best at what I do than take on a totally new challenge, but then without ever actually being the best, i cant say as that'd hold true

theres some balding V8 driver who's taking a chance and spreading his wings, will be watching that with interest.

Must get pretty boring for ,whipping everyone butts week in week out

Good luck to him,its not like they won't welcome him back if he doesn't cut it.

Plus I think it was Ford that set it up.

Terry.

[Jarro]

Even though he is a terrific timer of the cricket ball .. trying to make solid contact with a 95Mph fast ball thrown from 60'6" away is not the easiest thing in the world

would it make that much difference? many bowlers let em go at 95mph and from about 60 ft as well. The balls the same size too.

the speed of the ball might not be the hardest thing for him to cope with. I'd say he'd have trouble with the variations that the pitchers come up with. A baseball has a lot more seam than a cricket ball ... therefore the pitchers have more to work with. They can really get the ball to do whatever they want....

[Ducky]

A few games of 'MVP Baseball' will get his eye in...

[Fishman Dan]

The boring slow nature of baseball would cancel out his ability to provide lively hitting.

Baseball is up there with chess as the most unwatchable boring sport. Besides, i'm sure he'd take a moral stance against the wide use of steroids in the game.

Where's Damo - surely he's got choice words about this sport...

[Bruce]

Even though he is a terrific timer of the cricket ball .. trying to make solid contact with a 95Mph fast ball thrown from 60'6" away is not the easiest thing in the world

would it make that much difference? many bowlers let em go at 95mph and from about 60 ft as well. The balls the same size too.

the speed of the ball might not be the hardest thing for him to cope with. I'd say he'd have trouble with the variations that the pitchers come up with. A baseball has a lot more seam than a cricket ball ... therefore the pitchers have more to work with. They can really get the ball to do whatever they want....

The bit that evens this up is that the pitcher has to put it out in front of him, somewhere around the strike zone. He won't have to worry about picking them off his reb cage or the difference between a short of full ball.
I think you might also be underestimating how much a test bowler moves the ball and how late it moves too.

[Jarro]

Even though he is a terrific timer of the cricket ball .. trying to make solid contact with a 95Mph fast ball thrown from 60'6" away is not the easiest thing in the world

would it make that much difference? many bowlers let em go at 95mph and from about 60 ft as well. The balls the same size too.

the speed of the ball might not be the hardest thing for him to cope with. I'd say he'd have trouble with the variations that the pitchers come up with. A baseball has a lot more seam than a cricket ball ... therefore the pitchers have more to work with. They can really get the ball to do whatever they want....

The bit that evens this up is that the pitcher has to put it out in front of him, somewhere around the strike zone. He won't have to worry about picking them off his reb cage or the difference between a short of full ball.
I think you might also be underestimating how much a test bowler moves the ball and how late it moves too.

i see where you're coming from Bruce. The thing a lot of people don't know about baseball ... because they probably haven't played it ... is that the pitcher can really jam up a batter by throwing pitches just inside the plate. This causes the batter to back off a bit, whereby the pitcher can throw one outside The strike zone is interpreted differently by each umpire ... like, say for instance, an LBW decision for different cricket umpires.

It's really hard to say whether it's harder to face a baseball pitcher or Glenn McGrath .... i'm sure if Gilly decided to try his hand at baseball though he'd make a fair fist of it