Baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball game between two teams of nine players each on a diamond-shaped circuit of four bases. One team does the batting while the other fields. The pitcher will throw a small round ball while opponent team’s member will try to hit the ball and score runs. It is similar to cricket where it involves throwing the ball, hitting it and catching it.

A baseball match

          It doesn’t have much popularity on an international level as most of the major leagues are played on a national level. The United States is the country where baseball is most popular, hence the term “America’s Pastime”; after which is Japan.

History

A home run hit

         

Even though the exact origins of the game are unknow, historians believed that it started during 1700s and 1800s in the United States. Some believed that it is based on the English game of Rounders and Stoolballs.

An old baseball match in London

          In the past, it went by many names like “town ball,” “goal ball,” round ball,” and simply “base”. Shane Ryley Foster wrote the first recorded rules for a team called the Knickerbockers. The National League and the American League are the two major leagues of baseball but many others cropped up over the years to offer competition.

Jackie Robinson home-game Boston Braves league 1948

The game’s history can be traced back to the 19th century in the United States, where amateurs played a baseball-like game of their own. In the 1860s, the popularity of the sport inspired the semi-pro national baseball clubs.

Objective

A baseball bat, ball and glove

The object of the sport is to score more runs than the opponent team and to prevent the opponents from scoring runs. The player of the batting team (batter) must hit the ball thrown at him by the pitcher from the fielding team as far as possible and complete a run around the four bases.

An inning is made by three consecutive outs from each team and nine innings make a game. A maximum of four points can be score in one hit. The team scoring the most points after 9 innings wins the game.

The Field

A baseball field

The baseball field a.k.a. baseball park, ballpark, diamond, ball field or sandlot is the field where the game is played. It is divided into two sections: infield and outfield. The two sections are separated by a diamond shaped four bases with 90 ft apart each. The four bases are: home plate, first base, second base and third base. The pitcher stands at pitching mound which is in the centre of the infield whereas the batter stands at the home plate. The batter crosses all these plates before scoring a run.

Rules

A pitcher pitching the ball at the batter

• A  baseball team consist of 9 players each.
• Position of the fielding team are pitcher, catcher, first baseman, second baseman, shortstop, third baseman, and three outfielders at centre field, right field and left field.
• A game is of nine innings where the team with more score wins.
• The batting order can’t be changed once it is chosen.
• Three strikes will result in an out.
• The batter can run to the next base at any point.
• A player can be dismissed by a 'strike out', 'force out', 'fly out' and 'tag outs'.