Can Cricket SUPERSTAR Harry Brook learn how to hit a baseball in just 1 day?! | MLB Europe

Follow International cricket sensation and MLB Europe Ambassador Harry Brook as he heads to Florida to join up with the St. Louis Cardinals’ Spring Training camp. Harry’s goal? To learn the fundamentals of hitting in a single day. Harry’s challenge? To smash a bigger home run than Spencer Owen at Home Run Derby X, with just 100 seconds on the clock.

The question is: will his skills at the cricket crease translate to success on the diamond? It’s time to find out!

Ready for the MLB World Tour: London Series 2023?

Follow us elsewhere too:

[brianfallon]

As someone who played baseball in the US but lives in England, I think baseball players might struggle with fielding without gloves. Some of the bare handed catches cricketers make are unbelievable.

[toogyman]

Just seen Harry score a great hundred in front of 70, 000 at Eden Gardens in the IPL
The kid has some minerals

[Rrobot]

We need to get a whole team of them vs an MLB team exhibition game and then have an MLB team play an exhibition game of cricket vs them on their turf.

[clubequintafalcao]

He took guard like a cricketer 6:20. Love to see it.

[keithland]

So cool to see. Harry Brook has a bright future as a batter for the English team. As an Australian iI look forward to him being a headache at The Ashes

[mrfurion]

As a cricketer who has played baseball a few times, I found the hardest thing was getting the legs and feet right when hitting. In cricket you have to be ready to step forward, back and to either side because you can hit to the whole 360 degree field, and the bowler (pitcher) is allowed to make the ball come in at any height.

I could see this guy struggling with the same thing - throughout the whole video he never got his legs fully loaded and he kept pointing his front foot towards the pitcher rather than staying closed. This severely limits your power in a baseball swing.

[crackerjack]

He picked it up pretty quick. You can tell he has exceptional hand eye coordination.

[subhodipbanerjee]

Irrespective of the results, this crossover was wonderful. It helps you to appreciate what other people do.

[dominicverdin]

Not too shabby for his first time playing baseball. Well done kind sir. ⚾️

[yahiyaking]

Harry brook the future of English cricket, he is gonna become one of the top run scorer in future

[Fredman]

Grew up playing baseball, moved to cricket country. Round bat on ball is incredibly difficult, however every baseball 'fouled back' would probably be out in cricket, and there are a ton of them. Also, as a baseball player playing cricket, I found it extremely difficult to maintain focus on the ball after it bounces - your brain just says ignore it.

[zafarsobhan]

This was brilliant. I loved the generosity and appreciation on both sides. Cricket and baseball are two great sports and there is no reason those who are top of the sport in one couldn't retrofit their games to be pretty damn good in the other.

[TheDjcarter]

Biggest advantage these guys have are obviously they are great athletes and amazing hand eye coordination, given a week of real instruction they could probably get pretty good at least off BP fastballls. Just getting the correct grip on the bat and holding his hands higher would do wonders

[davidlong]

Cricket’s my game but into MLB too since my brother moved to CA in 1980… Lucky enough to see likes of Reggie Jackson, Pete Rose, Steve Garvey. As a cricket fan and coach I can see this lad is going to be at that kind of level in his own sport - serious serious talent.

[carlos-fvrc]

From my limited knowledge of cricket, I see that the two two sports are complete opposites - in the sense that in cricket, it's extremely difficult to get a batter out, and the bowler (pitcher) cheers like crazy when that happens. The teams score hundreds of runs in one game. While in baseball, it's extremely hard for the batter to get a hit, and when you have a duel between two good pitchers, you're not going to see more than a few runs.

[ericzhang]

For those that are not U.S native, Cubs and Cardinals are division rivals. it's going to be a good one. Hope my Cardinals can take the W. we have a good team this season

[WorldwideWyatt]

This is how you spread the game of baseball. Cricket and baseball are cousins and anyone who enjoys one will more than likely enjoy the other. We need more crossovers like this going both ways to make both games bigger.

[ticnatz]

I'll be in London for both games. I live in Germany, but St.Louis is where I call home. I hope this doesn't mess with his cricket swing. When I play golf (not very often), I'm told I have a baseball swing.

[sudarshaniyer]

As someone who has played both and watches full MLB and IPL seasons, I've seen some comments that I agree and disagree with, here are my two cents:

Pitching in baseball is far more complex than bowling in cricket in terms of the types of pitches one can throw and the control a pitcher can exert on the baseball to spin left, right, or down, regardless of ambient conditions. For bowling in cricket, there are a number of delivery types but these are heavily influenced by the ambient environment (clouds vs. dry sunny day for swing bowling) and pitch (green vs. dusty). A bowler is often a hostage to these parameters and most even in international cricket are unable to maintain similar levels of performance in one set of conditions vs. another.

I think a case could be made on the other hand that batting in cricket is more complex. You have to be good at cross bat shots, drives, sweeps, hooks, and cuts in cricket, where a batsman has to make a quick decision when the ball is bowled with regards to how to shape the body and transfer weight while keeping the head still. A lot of reaction also doesnt occur when the ball is bowled but rather where, when, and how the ball hits the surface. Baseball is less complex when it comes to the types of swings and location of where the ball needs to go. With this said, I do think it's harder to hit a ball with a round bat (perhaps easier to generate power though when the bat connects).

I would say fielding is harder with bare hands. Look at Jonty Rhodes videos to get a sense of fielding at point. However, baseball fielding requires more thought. In cricket you just have to figure out what end to throw to. In baseball you have a lot more targets to consider depending on the game situation, number of base runners, and fielding location (SS vs outfielder). Turning a double or triple play requires more coordination and teamwork than anything I see in cricket for example. Along the same lines, baserunning is more cerebral and tactical in baseball than running between the wickets in cricket, hopefully this point is self-explanatory.

From an entertainment perspective, T20 used to be a more exciting watch compared to an MLB game but with the introduction of the pitch timer I would say it's more equivalent now. Test cricket may be satisfying to watch for the diehard cricket fan but for the common consumer it definitely is a harder watch than an MLB game.

All in all, both games are brilliant to watch/play and each offers something different in terms of the fundamental contest of bat vs. ball. I encourage anyone who watches/plays only one to watch/play the other as they both are extremely fascinating.

[blitztim]

He did really good for a first timer. I wanted to hear his thoughts on baseball after this experience.
I would have like to see him field also.