Dear Urban Diplomat: Who gets dibs on the Moss Park diamond—ball or cricket players?

Dear Urban Diplomat: Who gets dibs on the Moss Park diamond—ball or cricket players?

Urban Diplomat
(Image: Greencolander)

Dear Urban Diplomat,
My friends and I went to play pickup baseball at Moss Park recently, and we encountered a crew of cricket players using the diamond. We politely interrupted and asked if we could have it, reasoning that a baseball diamond should be used for, well, baseball. They said no and kept playing. We left angry. Shouldn’t baseball players have first dibs on diamonds?
—Debased, St. Lawrence–Old Town

The age-old snobbery between cricketers, who tend to regard baseball as a vulgar degradation of their civilized sport, and baseball fans, who are baffled by cricket’s arcane terminology, is well known. But the answer is still no. Over 20 per cent of Torontonians originate from cricket-obsessed South Asia and the Caribbean, and yet the city maintains only 34 cricket pitches. Meanwhile, it has 312 baseball diamonds. So, until the supply problem is corrected, you and your buddies will have to learn to share. There are, after all, 311 other diamonds at your disposal.

Send your questions to the Urban Diplomat at urbandiplomat@torontolife.com