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Re:The greatest juggler alive quit to open a construction bu... by zem on Wednesday April 30, 2014 @01:33AM (#7671779)
there is pretty much no one who has dominated a sport the way bradman dominated cricket, i think. consider - he has the highest lifetime test batting average of all time, at 99.94. which doesn't perhaps sound that impressive, out of context, until you see that the next three people in the record books have averages of 60.97, 60.83 and 60.73. he was more than 50% better than the second-best test batsman around.
Re:The greatest juggler alive quit to open a construction bu... by virtualwhys on Wednesday April 30, 2014 @01:58AM (#7671836)
Not sure how cricket compares to baseball, but in the 20s and 30s the overall talent level was nowhere near what it's become in modern times.

Saying that, Bradman's batting average is absurdly high, does 99.94 mean that nearly everytime he went to bat he was able to put the ball in play without the opposing team being able to get him out?

If so, the equivalent in baseball would be almost always getting a hit (closest in modern era was, I believe, .424 by Ted Williams), something that would require the hand/eye coordination of superman, basically.

Re:The greatest juggler alive quit to open a construction bu... by kamaal on Wednesday April 30, 2014 @04:15AM (#7672154)
What an average of 99.94 means is every time he went to play he scored an average ~100 runs. Which is just too remarkable. And that too in test cricket.

Test cricket is just what it is, its a test of patience and concentration. You are supposed to play unreasonably long amounts of time(the whole day) in scorching heat. There fore to go in and play that, it just means one thing. Not only where his batting skills top notch in the history of the game, his ability to focus, concentrate has not been matched ever since. Please note bowlers are always on the look out to get your out. And there are literally many way in which you can get out.

This isn't just sport. This is meditation.

Re:The greatest juggler alive quit to open a construction bu... by Cogito on Wednesday April 30, 2014 @02:17AM (#7671880)
Not quite, but close.

In cricket you (and a second batter who is with you) stay at bat until you are dismissed. There are a number of ways to be dismissed, such as being caught on the full or run out, but you don't need to put every ball into play. In order to score runs you generally must play the ball, but trying to score runs increases your risk of being dismissed.

The best batsman are able to both score runs and minimise their risk of being dismissed, and so are able to stay in bat for longer and score higher totals.

Bradman was, on average, able to score almost 100 runs every time he went out to bat, and that is just ridiculous.

Re:The greatest juggler alive quit to open a construction bu... by zem on Wednesday April 30, 2014 @02:12AM (#7671865)
well, "putting the ball in play" is not as hard in cricket as in baseball; the 99 refers to runs, not a percentage. but getting more than 100 runs in a game (known as a century) is a reasonably significant feat in cricket; that bradman's average was almost 100 runs is spectacular.