Plaquita
La plaquita or la placa (English: little plate) is a bat-and-ball game played in the Dominican Republic with many similarities to cricket.[1][2]
Several Dominican MLB baseball players have attested to playing it as children.[3][4][5][6][7][8]
Rules
[edit]Two teams of two players take turns fielding and batting. There are two wickets which are license plates (called placas in Spanish), with one fielder behind and one batter in front of each wicket. One of the fielding team's players throws the ball to the batter at the opposite wicket, who may then try to hit it. The fielding team's goal is to bowl the batter out by knocking over the wicket with the ball.[9] Batters run between the wickets to score runs, with one run scored for each swap of the batters, though they can be gotten out if a fielder runs them out by hitting a wicket with the ball while they are away from it.[10] The batting team switches with the fielding team once their batters have gotten out three times, with the team that is first to 12 runs winning the game.[11]
See also
[edit]- Bete-ombro, a very similar Brazilian version of cricket
- Vitilla, another famous Dominican street bat-and-ball game
References
[edit]- ^ "DR1.com - Dominican Republic News & Travel Information Service". dr1.com. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
- ^ "Federation Focus: Baseball is in Dominican Republic's DNA". wbsc.org. Retrieved 2021-10-13.
- ^ "Vladimir Guerrero finally explained why he's so great at hitting balls on the bounce". MLB.com. 26 January 2018. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
- ^ https://www.jockbio.com/Bios/Vlad/Vlad_bio.html"The kids of Nizao Bani enjoyed a form of baseball known as La Placa. Home was a license plate, and a batter had to keep his bat touching the dish until the pitcher released the ball. This made Vladimir a great low ball hitter."
- ^ "Victor Robles electrifies the Nationals with risky but rewarding play". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
- ^ "A Leap of Faith". MiLB.com. Retrieved 2023-04-26.
- ^ "Jose Ramirez: Me in Real Life". MLB.com. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ Young, David (2012-03-20). "2012 Dodgers Player Profile: Rubby De La Rosa, The Gem Had A Flaw". True Blue LA. Retrieved 2020-09-18.
- ^ Tyers, Alan (2017-07-02). "Jos Buttler and Alex Hales take a swing at a whole new ball game". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2023-06-28.
- ^ http://diccionariolibre.com/definicion/La-Plaquita"en la parte delantera de la placa se dibuja un triangulo o un semi-circulo de acuerdo al gusto de los jugadores [...] Si no se esta al turno en el bate se debe siempre tener la punta del bate dentro del home (el triangulo o semi-circulo) sino el contrario puede tumbar la plaquita y es es [sic] un out."
- ^ Kurlansky, Mark (2010-04-15). The Eastern Stars: How Baseball Changed the Dominican Town of San Pedro de Macoris. Penguin. ISBN 978-1-101-18686-2.