At a recent conference I attended, a session touched on intercultural communication issues (with offshore engineering teams). To illustrate the point, the speaker remarked "consider explaining how baseball or football works to someone new to the game".

In +-60 words or so (assume 1 word per second for a one minute explanation), try to explain each one. Here are my first tries:

Football: Teams score points by taking the ball into the team's "end zone". Seven points are scored for running or catching the ball therein, three by kicking through the goal, and two by forcing a team to end their play in their own zone. Each team has four attempts to take the ball 10 yards. Failure gives the ball to the opponent.

Baseball: Points are scored by completing circuits around the field. Batters can advance when the ball is put into play. A batter's turn ends when he reaches base, or is counted "out". Outs occur when failing to swing and hit the ball, or not swinging at a hittable ball three times, and when failing to reach a base before the offense can tag the runner or prevent them from taking the base. Four poor throws allows batters to advance. A team gets three "outs" per inning, and nine innings per game so long as there is no tie.

How well can you do? Clearly baseball is more difficult.