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Football (Soccer) to Cricket

  1. Whenever a team has the ball, all players on the other team must leave the field except the one defending the goal.
  2. Give the defender a wooden bat and have him prevent the ball from scoring using that instead of his body.
  3. Make the field a 90-foot square, and put the goals in opposite corners of the field instead of along the sides.
  4. Just throw and catch the ball with your hands; don't kick it.
  5. If the attacking team scores three times, or if the defender hits the ball and it is caught by an opposing player before it lands on the ground, the defender is "out". Replace him with a different defender according to a specific ordering set up beforehand. The teams switch sides every time there are three "outs".
  6. If the defender hits the ball and it is not caught, he has to try to run around the edge of the field. He can stop at any corner he likes; when he does, bring another defender to continue using the bat.
  7. Any defender is "out" if the attackers touch him with the ball when he's not on a corner. But he can't stay on a corner forever; if after the ball is hit another defender is running towards his corner, he has to run to the next one!
  8. Touching a running guy can be hard; let's just say that if an attacker is touching a corner while holding the ball, the defender running to that corner is out. But only if the defender can't try to run back to the previous corner.
  9. Let's mix it up a bit and change around the team labels! The team with the bat are going to be the attackers; they score a point (a "run") if any of them manage to get all the way around the four corners of the field without getting out. The people with the ball are going to be the defenders (or "fielders") instead. They can't score any runs right now, but they still have to keep throwing the ball towards the goal.
  10. Choose one defender who's really good at throwing, call him the "pitcher", and have that be his job.
  11. Remember we said that if the attacking team scores three times, the person with the bat is out? Well, since that team is fielding now and can't score points by hitting the goal anymore, call the goal a "strike zone" and have them try to collect three "strikes" instead.
  12. Since we're not using the other goal as long as its team is fielding, just remove it. They can use the same strike zone as the other team when they switch places.
  13. Make the strike zone a lot smaller and have it hover in mid-air next to the guy with the bat. Put a plate on the floor below it so you can tell exactly where it is.
  14. If the guy with the bat swings it and misses the ball, he gets a strike even if the ball didn't hit the strike zone.
  15. Make the ball a lot smaller, and really hard. Give the batter a helmet so he doesn't get killed by it.
  16. That's not enough safety. Let's have it so if the pitcher hits the batter with the ball, the batter gets to "walk" one corner for free.
  17. Give all of the fielders gloves so they don't get hurt when trying to catch the ball.
  18. Any time the pitcher misses the strike zone, call that a "ball". If a batter collects four "balls", he gets to "walk" one corner for free.
  19. If the batter hits the ball beyond the boundaries of the field without it bouncing, he and any of his team-mates on the corners get to finish walking around the entire circle and score their points for free!
  20. It's way too easy to do that, so let's make the field bigger - a lot bigger. But only in the 90° arc opposite the batter.
  21. Now the corners are too far apart to run to! Put them back where they were before, but leave the field the same size.
  22. They're not corners anymore, so call them "bases".
  23. Only if the batter hits the ball into the 90° arc straight ahead does he get to walk around the bases for free; if he hits the ball anywhere else outside the field (into "foul territory"), that's a free strike for the fielders. This strike can't be the third one that gets him out, though.
  24. Remove two players from each side.
  25. The game ends when each team has had nine goes (or "innings") at being the attackers. Whoever has the most runs wins!
  26. You can't strike out. Swing and miss as much as you like.
  27. There's no foul territory. Hit the ball anywhere you like.
  28. There are no balls. The pitcher is even allowed to bounce the ball on the ground before it reaches the batter.
  29. There are no walks either. If you get hit by a pitch, tough.
  30. If you hit the ball, you only have to run if you think it's safe to do so. Otherwise, stay where you are and take another pitch.
  31. If you reach home plate and score a run, don't go back to the dugout. Stay there to face the next pitch. Or keep running on to first again if you wish.
  32. When you get out, no matter what base you're on, the next batter comes in to replace you where you were.
  33. The bases are always loaded.
  34. So if you hit a home run, that's 4 runs. But don't bother actually running the bases, since that's pointless. Just stay where you are.
  35. Take the gloves off the fielders.
  36. Once you're out, you can't bat again in the same inning.
  37. The team's inning is only over when 6 players are out, since this leaves only 3 players who aren't out to man the bases.
  38. Let's increase a home run to scoring 6 runs, but still the batters don't move any bases when one is hit.
  39. Reduce the number of bases from four to two.
  40. Replace each base with three upright wooden poles in a row, 28 inches high, with the outermost two 9 inches apart.
  41. When batting, you are out if the pitcher hits the poles with a pitch, or if you get in the way and he hits you. You better defend them with your bat!
  42. If the ball hits the wall around the field, let's automatically score 4 runs and the ball is out of play.
  43. Increase the number of players from 9 to 11 per team. So now, the inning is over when 10 players are out, since that just leaves one player and two bases to man.
  44. Reduce the number of innings from nine to two.