What is Baseball?

Baseball is the favourite sport of millions of Americans and is considered a national pastime. Although the sport is gaining popularity in countries like Japan and Mexico, the USA is certainly the home of the sport and has the most professional league in the world. Here in Europe we are more used to playing similar sports like rounders, softball or even kickball but in the states it’s baseball all the way.

What is required?

Baseball is a sport played with an aluminum or wooden bat, a hard leather ball with a cork and rubber core and a leather glove to catch the ball. Players will also traditionally wear a peaked cap to keep the sun from their eyes, or as it has become commonly known a baseball cap. While batting in professional games players will wear a helmet, often only protected only on the side that faces the pitcher, dependent on whether you are right or left handed. The catcher will also wear padding on his warms and chest as well as a full helmet, as he will have to face fast balls and possibility of flying bats! Once you have these things all you need is a pair of spiked running shoes, or as they are known in the USA cleats. The pitch required is large with a diamond base and circular top, roughly 95 feet in radius and although it can be adapted to be played in a park or more social settings, a professional pitch is difficult to replicate. As you can see the sport requires more equipment than lots of other sports popular in Europe and the shape of the pitch does not lend itself to being used for other sports.

How the game works:

Batting

Each of the two teams takes in it turns to be in and out of bat for nine innings or rounds each having a chance to pitch and bat in each of the innings. The pitching team will have a total of nine players on the field while the team batting will send one player in at time. The pitcher, or as us Europeans are more familiar with bowler, will the pitch the ball at the batter with the intention of the batter missing it or at least not being able to get a good hit on it, although the ball must be pitched within a set area. Once the batter has struck the ball he must attempt to reach one of the four bases, or rocks as they are also known in baseball. These bases form a diamond shape with each being 90 feet away from each other. If and when the batter reaches one of the rocks he can wait there while another player is put in to bat. If the player manages to complete all four bases, or reach home, he scores a run for his team. In most cases a player will not complete all four bases in one go, if he does it is known as a homerun. There are two types of homerun an infield and an outfield. An outfield is achieved by knocking the ball over the fence at the end of the field. At which point the player can casually jog the bases and achieves a run. This is one of the most popular aspects of the sport. An infield home run is all but unheard of in the modern game of professional baseball as the ball must stay in the field while the player completes the diamond, and given the standard of play today this is very unlikely. Whilst the homerun is the most exciting aspect of the game most runs are achieved in stages and as a team. So a player may reach first or second base and then progress as the next player bats.

Pitching

When a team is pitching it there objective to prevent the opposing team from making runs. They do this in a variety of ways. Firstly the pitcher will throw the ball in such a way that makes it harder for the batter to hit or get a clean shot. When the pitcher throws the ball it is important that he is not misleading to the batter, for example he can’t feint the pitch. He must also pitch the ball in a certain area close to the batter. He can curve the ball and pitches can be incredibly fast, the fastest ever being recorded at 106 MPH. If the batter fails to hit a shot within 3 attempts or strikes he declared out. A batter can also be declared out if the ball is caught straight off his bat. Another thing the team pitching can do it attempt to get players out between bases. They do this by getting the ball to the base before the player reaches it or hitting the player with the ball. Because only one player can be on a base at one time players will often be forced to run to a base when there is a good chance there will be out. Also player on bases will attempt to sneak forward before the ball pitched and so it is also the pitchers job to be aware of this quickly throw the ball to his team mate on base when the player he left it. If this is successful the player will be declared out.