His sons love the game - proof that the national team's exploits can inspire young people at the grass roots.

BBC: Irish cricket moves up the batting order

Some observers believe that nurturing young players on soft-grass academy playing fields deprives them of the basic skills that previous generations learned on the hard surfaces of neighborhood streets and tight corners of the schoolyard.

WSJ: Scoring Skills are Heading South

Mr. Marlantes puts you in the heads of scared young men walking blindly in column through head-high grass in terror of trip-wires and ambush by enemies fighting on their home turf, or hacking their way through impenetrable bush overwhelmed by fatigue, jungle rot, fear, sickness, tigers and leeches.

WSJ: Wall Street Journal: Twelve Months of Reading

He whispers to the kindling a sweet and urgent seduction, and the handfuls of dry grass and twigs piled in the stump suddenly ignite and the young fire nips at his fingertips.

NPR: Excerpt: 'Woodsburner'

There are more options, and in a world of attention deficits and hyperactivity, young boys would rather chase boards down snow slopes than baseballs on a diamond of grass and dirt.

FORBES: Why the NBA is More Relevant than MLB in the 21st Century