Cricket buff Martin Rowe, co-author of Right Off the Bat, explains the parallel and occasionally intertwined history of baseball and cricket in a presentation that includes anecdotes, diagrams, photographs, and a curve (or dipper) or two.

Along the way, Rowe examines how the two sports mirrored British and American social and racial struggles while expanding beyond the shores of their founding countries to become multinational endeavors commanding global followings that now challenge the future of both sports.