A silly question for the English folks

[billm]

I've been downloading a lot of TV off of usenet lately and enjoying many BBC shows that we don't get here in the states. Spooks, Hustle, Skins... etc.

One thing I am always curious about is that, often one of the bad guys in one of these shows will menace someone with a baseball bat.

I always think, "Why in the hell would they have baseball bats in England? Do they sell them exclusively as weapons?"

Are these just some sort of generic club and not actually baseball bats? What are they for?

[skriefal]

I'd expect a cricket club to be more common than a baseball bat...

[Chloe]

They are kept as weapons. We don't play baseball here.

[pex]

In England, they're turning in their kitchen knives.  You can't be a fan of cooking (and chopping) so much as you can be of baseball.  This preclusion probably allows people to keep what is essentially a club instead as memorabilia (of course, obviously in use and transportation there is much less an excuse.)

Anyway, we don't play baseball in the US, either.  Just roidball.

A good swing hits balls and people just as well, I suppose.

[xsphat]

In the US, if you wave a baseball bat around in public you're at least going to spend a night in jail.