"Giants and Metal Heads, Baseball, and Ashes despair"

Thanks for watching and welcome to Part 13 from my self-published book in August 2023, "The Spirit of Cricket".

Please see the link below for the paperback version of this, my fourth self-published book, and three ways in which you could support me and poke the traditional publishers in the eye who refused to even read my manuscript!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CF4FRKSH

https://www.patreon.com/TheBlackfordBookClub
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https://www.buymeacoffee.com/steveblackford

Here follows a snippet from the chapter being read here, and chapter number 30 of a total of 41 from a book I'm immensely proud of:

"But with the visitors triumph in the Test Match counting double in the points system, and 2 points from their sole victories in the IT20 and ODI games, The Ashes will remain in Australian hands regardless of Tuesday’s outcome.

Whilst this cricketing hullabaloo was unfolding 175 odd miles away in my home county of Hampshire (and on the outskirts of a city my hometown friends can’t pronounce without a sneer of contempt!) I was watching my latest hometown team of “Giants” entertain some visiting “Metalheads” in the American pastime of baseball, and all within my spiritual home of Ironbridge on the banks of the River Severn. Being the baseball nut that I am (and proud LA Dodgers fan), I was delighted beyond measure when last Summer I stumbled upon the faintly ridiculous and utterly absurd notion of a game of baseball in England, and that my home team played a mere hop, skip and second base steal from picturesque Ironbridge. So bribed with the prospect of some afternoon fish and chips beside the iron bridge itself and within the bubbling atmosphere that only Ironbridge can provide, my son indulged me for an hour or so of high scoring baseball on the banks of a river in the very heart of central England.

With my son insisting on being chief photographer we retrieved errant baseballs from the surrounding trees or used them for temporary cover as yet another rain shower swept through a late July morning that was more reminiscent of a cold day in April. Sunshine and showers was the order of the day, as was the predicted victory for the visiting “Metalheads” from Birmingham who were far too strong for my home team of “Giants”.
I had the very real pleasure of explaining the game, a real life game rather than the one I’ve explained via the medium of a television, to a son who rather enjoyed himself (just don’t tell him that!) as well as being magnanimous enough to say I was wrong and there was no way either team would hit a Home Run to the faraway boundaries. No way! Yet in the 3rd inning alone the visiting “Metalheads” crashed 3 multi-scoring “Homers” on their way to scoring 10 runs in the inning, a 12–3 lead entering the 4th inning, and the signal for our departure for a stroll along the River Severn and the delights of fish and chips beside the oldest iron bridge in the world.

From 12–3 in favour of Birmingham at the top of the 4th inning, the game ended 5 innings later with a comprehensive score line of 26–11 in favour of the “Metalheads” and with 37 runs being scored and a little piece of amateur sporting heaven on my doorstep, I’ll be returning for their three season ending home fixtures in August.

Fish, chips and baseball beside the river?

And why not?

Why not indeed".

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