Americans weren't always full tossers

I have written before about my passion for the game of cricket, and how that, combined with my distinctly North American twang is considered somewhat exotic by other cricket fans. So, I was rather happy to read this great article on the heritage of cricket in the United States: "Cricket, Anyone ?", from the always surprising and consistently magnetic Smithsonian Magazine. Cricket—now played by millions of people in 92 countries ranging from the Caribbean to Europe to Africa to South Asia—was once the national game of, yes, these United States. And one of the first outdoor sports to be played on these shores. An 1844 cricket match between teams from the United States and Canada was the first international sporting event in the modern world, predating the revival of the Olympic Games by more than 50 years. The photo shows Philadelphia native son J. Barton King who, in 1908, set records that stood throughout the cricket world for 40 years. Indeed, Philadelphia was once a world cricketing power. Today, however, as the article points out, "many Americans dismiss cricket as an elitist game played by girlie-men. Just don't say that to Aussie Rules football players, who play on a round field ("pitch" actually) because the game was invented as a way to keep cricketers fit in the off-season. Yep, they're bashing each other up on what was, originally, a cricket pitch. ..