The issue I'm having here is that people are mistaking minutia with the larger issues.
It doesn't matter that in a game of baseball, this pitch or that play might be different. The point is, following the rules of baseball will give you pretty much the same results every time. One side, then the other will take turns fielding or batting for a set number of times until a winner is declared. Same, I think, as cricket.
At no point can there be any deviation from that.
And, frankly, it's a bit disingenuous to bring in managing. Who actually thinks, "Hey, I'm played baseball last weekend" means "Hey, I managed a baseball team"?
OTOH, my Cthulhu game might start in Boston c1930, run for 10 hours of play time and finish. Or, it might start in the Antarctic in 2020 a la John Carpenter's The Thing, run for 100 hours of play time and finish. Or it might start in the year 2837 on a space station, a la Sarah Monette and run for 10 years of play time. All with the same ruleset.
And those are laughably called the same games?