Leo held up his rounders bat. "First, ours is shorter. And we only hold it with one hand." He mimed a swing, one hand high on the grip. "In rounders, you have to swing underarm, like a pendulum."
And they called it "Base-rounders." Everyone agreed it was better than both.
"That's right!" Leo grinned. "The bowler throws underarm, no windmill. And the pitch must pass over the batter's knee and below the shoulder—a 'good ball.' If you get three 'bad balls' (too high or wide), you get a 'walk' to first." differences between rounders and baseball
Leo held up one finger. "One hand, underarm swing, bare hands, must run on fouls, underarm bowler, posts not bags, rounders not runs."
Maeve picked up her hardball, white with red stitches. "Ours is like a rock. We need big leather gloves or we'd break our fingers." Leo held up his rounders bat
The teacher, seeing a perfect teaching moment, declared, "Battle of the bats! Explain the differences."
That afternoon, they combined them. They used the rounders ball (so no one got hurt) and baseball gloves (so no one cried). They used Maeve's baseball bat with two hands, but Leo's underarm bowling. They ran on fouls but kept innings. "In rounders, you have to swing underarm, like a pendulum
Leo had just moved from London to Boston, and he was nervous. His new class was having a "Sports Heritage Day," where everyone brought in their favorite piece of sporting equipment.