Hall of Fame pitch for Cricket ! Cooperstown Dreams !- Photos !

Cooperstown NY: Sunday June 5th, 100 American Youth baseball teams in Cooperstown for the Coopertown Dreams Park event, and some of them were playing cricket on the lawns of the National Baseball Hall of Fame !

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The stumps were in place, and the American College Cricket players from Boston University ,Carnegie Mellon University, University of Minnesota and NYU Polytechnic University were ready to play. The venue was the lawns of the National Baseball of Fame !

The moment was historic, for the first time ever cricket was being played in Cooperstown, and at the Baseball Hall of Fame itself !

American College Cricket founder and President Lloyd Jodah, Vikas Pandya (U of Minnesota), Az Cheema (NYU-Poly), Hayat Khan (Boston U) and Sahil Jolly (Carnegie Mellon U) then engaged visitors to the Hall of Fame in some cricket. Hall of Fame staff also joined in.

1274 American Youth baseball teams will play in Cooperstown this summer and the most remarkable moments were when many of the boys from a number of the teams tried their hand at cricket, batting and bowling.

Not surprisingly, the baseball boys proved adept at batting, as well as bowling, with minimal instruction. Their reaction ? “This is cool” , ” This is awesome !” and they didn’t want to stop ! Their eyes and expressions of delight told the story !

“Swinging Away – how Cricket and Baseball connect” and American College Cricket had scored a hit !

To the historical eye, it was like going back in time 150 years, to when an American might play either cricket or baseball, as George and Henry Wright , two of the founding fathers of professional baseball, did or Henry Chadwick, often called the “father of baseball” did.

The following photos have a special place in USA history – thanks to the participants. CLICK ON PHOTOS to ENLARGE.