One of the many reasons that cricket is a superior tactical game to baseball is that the fielding positions are not fixed but altered by the captain to suit the bowlers attack and the batsman's style. Silly point is a close in fielding position designed to get a catch off a batsman who is playing defensively (another difference, batsmen stay in until got out by being caught or bowled or run out or whatever so defensive play, where you protect the wicket until the bowler bowls a lose ball is ok. This tests the stamina and concentration of both batsman and bowler). A version of silly point is very silly point followed by suicide point at which point cricket becomes a contact sport. A yorker is a ball bowled at the batsman feet not likely in itself to get the batsmen out but designed to break his concentration. A googly is an offbreak ball bowled with a leg break action, ie a ball that is signalled to do one thing but actually does another.
As you can possible see cricket is very much a game of mental concentration and stamina. People who complain that it takes to long miss the point of the game which is to test mental stamina. As a beside the cricket ball is just as hard as the baseball and the bowler runs up so the speed of the cricket ball is faster than that of the baseball. More than one batsman has been killed by being struck on the head by a ball.
With regards to baseball I'm in favour of raising the mound back to it's full pre 1969 height.
