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| Baseball |
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Baseball
is a team sport
in which a player on one team (the pitcher)
attempts to throw a hard, fist-sized ball
past a player on the other team (the batter),
who attempts to hit the baseball
with a tapered, smooth cylinder called a bat. |
| A team scores
only when batting, by advancing past a series of four markers
called bases
arranged at the corners of a square.
Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it
from similar
games such as softball.
A view of the playing field at the old Busch Stadium in St.
Louis, Missouri.
Enlarge
Although originating in Britain, Baseball is most popular
in the
Americas and East
Asia. In Japan,
Puerto
Rico, the
Dominican Republic,
Cuba,
Panama, Venezuela,
South
Korea, and Taiwan,
it is one of the most popular sports. In the United
States, baseball has long been regarded as more than just
a "major
sport" - it is the national
pastime and Major
League Baseball has been given a unique monopoly status
by the
U.S. Congress; the total attendance for Major
League games is roughly equal to that of all other American
professional team sports combined. Among American television
viewers, however, baseball has been surpassed in popularity
(in terms of television ratings) by American
football. Although three of the four most popular sports
in North America are
ball games (baseball, basketball
and American football), baseball's popularity grew so great
that the word "ballgame" in the United States almost
always refers to a game of baseball, and "ballpark"
to a baseball
field. |
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| Introduction |
| Baseball is
among the oldest and most popular team sports in the United
States. A unique culture surrounds it, that includes the game
itself, the field, the players, the ballparks and the fans.
It remains a sport created in and for simpler times, yet is
a complex sport that is greater than any one individual, team
or era.
Although the origins and evolution of the various bat-and-ball
games are murky, baseball is primarily an American invention,
although it originated as an adaptation of the game of rounders,
and was also influenced by the rules of cricket.
As far back as the 1870s, American newspapers were calling
the sport "The National Pastime" or "The National
Game". No small part of its appeal is that it is mostly
played during the warm, relatively leisurely months of the
year, thus it is also called "The Summer Game" and
its players often referred to as "The Boys of Summer."
Baseball has a perennial attraction, summarized below in
Baseball's
unique style, unlike any other mainstream American sport.
But, "unique" fails to capture baseball's more endearing
quality—orderly and deliberate. Maybe Yogi
Berra (a Hall
of Fame baseball player) said it best: "Baseball
is 90% mental—the other half is physical."
The section on Gameplay
(below) provides the rules of game, but the lure of baseball
is in its subtleties: situational defense, pitch location,
pitch sequence, statistics, ball parks, history, and player
personalities. For the avid fan, the game, even at its slowest,
is never boring because of these nuances. Therefore, a full
appreciation of baseball naturally requires some knowledge
of the rules, but it also requires a deep observation of those
endearing and enduring qualities that gives baseball its unique
style. Again quoting Yogi Berra, "You can observe a lot
just by watching." |
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| Gameplay |
| A simplified
version of the rules of baseball is at simplified baseball rules.
Also visit www.mlb.com,
the official web site of Major League Baseball in the United
States, where you can view clips of baseball being played. |
Baseball is
played between two teams of nine players each on a baseball
field, usually under the authority of one or more officials,
called umpires. There are usually four umpires in major
league games; up to six (and as few as one) may officiate
depending on the league and the importance of the game.
There are four bases. Numbered counter-clockwise, first,
second and third bases are cushions (sometimes informally
referred to as bags) shaped as 15 in (38 cm) squares
which are raised a short distance above the ground;
together with home plate, the fourth "base,"
they form a square with sides of 90 ft (27.4 m) called
the diamond. Home base (plate) is a pentagonal rubber
slab known as simply home. The field is divided into
two main sections: the infield |
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| containing the
four bases is bounded by the foul line and the grass line (see
figure); and the outfield which is the grassed area beyond the
infield grass line, between the foul line, and bounded by a
wall or fence. The area between the foul lines, including the
foul lines (the foul lines are in fair territory), is fair territory,
and the area outside the foul lines is foul territory.
The game is played in nine innings in which each team gets
one turn to bat and try to score runs while the other pitches
and defends in the field. In baseball, the defense always
has the ball -- a fact that differentiates it from most other
team sports. The teams switch every time the defending team
gets three players of the batting team out. The winner is
the team with the most runs after nine innings. In the case
of a tie, additional innings are played until one team comes
out ahead. At the start of the game, all nine players of the
home team play the field, while players on the visiting team
come to bat one at a time. |
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