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Baseball is a team sport, popular in the Americas, East Asia and Australia. In its usual form, the game is between two teams of nine players on a playing field consisting of 4 bases, arranged in a diagonal square ("the diamond") and a large outfield (see /Fielding positions for a typical layout).

Play of the Game

As the game starts, the home team takes the field, while the visitors come to bat. After making three outs, the visitors take the field and the home team bats.

The basic contest is always between the pitcher, who tries to throw the ball so it cannot be cleanly hit, and the batter, who tries to hit the pitched ball with a rounded bat. If the batter hits a "fair ball" into the field of play, the hitter runs to first base and any of his teammates who are already "on the bases" may attempt to advance to another base. If a baserunner is already on first base, they must try to advance or the batter will be out; no two offensive players may ever stay on the same base. The batting team scores a run by advancing a player all the way around the diamond.

If the ball is caught before it bounces, or the ball is fielded and thrown to a base before a runner arrives there, the player is out, and must return to his team's dugout. There is also an imaginary area above "home plate" (where the batter stands) between the batters knees and chest called the "strike zone". Any pitch which passes through this area is a "strike", as is any pitch at which the batter swings and misses. If a batter records 3 strikes before putting the ball in play, he is out. (An exception is if the third strike evades the catcher but this rarely occurs.) Any pitch which is not a strike is called a Ball. A batter who receives 4 balls from a pitcher may walk to first base and cannot be tagged out. This is called a "walk." A batter may also move to first base if he is struck by a pitched ball, unless he puts himself in the path of the pitch and makes no attempt to avoid being struck.

After 3 outs (a "half-inning") the roles of the fielding and hitting sides are reversed. Usually, 9 innings are played. The aim of the game is to score more runs than the opposing team. If both teams have scored the same number of runs at the end of 9 innings, an extra inning is added to the game. If the score remains tied, another inning is added. This process repeats until the score is no longer tied at the end of an inning. Thus, the team which hits in the second (or "bottom") half of the inning always has a chance to respond to a run scored by the team batting in the first (or "top") half. As there are tactical advantages to this, the home team is always granted the right to bat in the bottom half of the inning. Baseball games end with tie scores only because weather or lighting conditions have made it impossible to continue play. In the Major Leagues, teams usually continue games at a later date rather than allow a game to end in a tie.

Pitching

Effective pitching is vitally important in baseball. A pitcher who starts games should be able to pitch for 6 or 7 seven innings before being replaced by specialist relief pitchers, who finish the game off. For a starter to pitch all 9 innings (a "Complete Game") is a personal achievement, though this was not always so -- the average number of innings pitched has been declining slowly in the professional leagues almost since their inception, and 9 innings was once the norm. Pitching is also physically demanding: a modern-day starting pitcher can usually throw 100-110 pitches with no ill effects, but throwing many more reduces effectiveness, and sometimes serious and permament arm injury. In a major league season then, a club usually keeps a cadre of 5 starting pitchers (known as the "starting rotation") to start games, giving pitchers at least 3 or (preferably) 4 or 5 days rest between starts. 5 to 7 more pitchers are employed to pitch the innings not handled by the starting rotation.

Types of Pitch

In order to prevent the batter from hitting the ball well, a good pitcher should be able throw a variety of different pitches, which will usually be a subset of the following basic types.

The pitcher will try to make the batter miss the ball entirely ("go out on strikes") or hit it so that it can be handled by one of the fielders. This generally involves throwing the ball in a way, or to a location, that the batter is not expecting, causing him to hit it weakly or not at all. Since it is very difficult to do this, the batter will often be able to hit the ball strongly. Good fielders may have some idea of where the pitcher is likely to throw the ball, and therefore where the hitter is likely to hit it (an "outside" pitch will generally be hit to the side of the field that the batter faces, for instance), and may be prepared to field the ball there if the batter hits it well.

The batter tries to hit the ball in such a way that it cannot be cleanly handled by a fielder; a good hitters can "direct" a batted ball surprisingly accurately to some area of the playing field. Since the only certain way to prevent the ball being fielded is to hit it beyond the bounds of the playing field, "home runs" have become increasingly popular with hitters and managers.

Equipment

Clothing


See Also:

Postseason awards:

Web sites:


Some information from Albert Spalding's (1850-1915) "Americas National Game".

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Last edited December 13, 2001 12:33 pm by 128.59.58.xxx (diff)
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