Baseball

Baseball is a sport in which two teams, generally consisting of nine players per team, compete for nine innings with the goal of scoring the most points, known as runs. An inning consists of a long series of units in which a player (the batter) of one team tries to hit a small ball — thrown by a player (the pitcher) of the other team — with a stick (the baseball bat) and hit it away, thereby aiming to make it difficult (for the players of the other team) to return the ball to the pitcher, because, in the meantime, the batter and other players of his team try to improve their position in the field: A player who is able to move around the field by reaching (in sequence) the four corners (the bases) completes a run and gains a point towards the final result of the game. A batter remains in place until he commits three mistakes or leaves his position in order to begin a run (and becomes a base runner). A base runner is eliminated if the ball is brought back before he is safe on a base. A half inning lasts until three players of the team on bat are eliminated (out).

According to recent scholarship, the origins of baseball can be linked to a long line of bat and ball games that can be traced back not only to Britain but also to other cultures dating back to the Egyptians.

The sport was popularized during the American Civil War where it gained appeal over the sport of cricket. The labeling of baseball as the American National Pastime coincides with late 19th-century competition between modern nation-states and the consequent desire to claim cultural, social, ideological, economic and political phenomena as unique to a particular nation. The United States has not been alone in claiming baseball as its National Pastime as the sport has had over a century long history in Cuba, Japan, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Mexico, Canada, Korea and Taiwan. The game has received international recognition, first as an Olympic sport, and more recently through the World Baseball Classic (WBC) and various regional tournaments.

Terminology

• run - Point scored when a base runner touches home plate.
• inning - A section of the baseball game in which both teams have an opportunity to bat. The "top half" of the inning the visiting team bats until they receive three outs and in the "bottom half" the home team has the same opportunity. A standard game lasts nine innings.
• out - An out occurs whenever one of the following conditions are met: 1) A hit ball is caught in the air, 2) A hit ball is retrieved and beats the base runner to the base, 3) a base runner is tagged with the ball while not on a base, 4) a strikeout.
• strike - A pitch that is either swung on and missed by the batter, or the batter fails to swing at a pitch located in the strikezone.
• ball - A pitch that is thrown outside of the strikezone that the batter does not swing at.
• strikeout - When a batter receives three strikes in an at bat, which is recorded as an out.
• home run - A batted ball that is hit outside of the playing field, while not in foul territory. This results in the current batter and all runners on base being allowed to score a run with no interference from the other team.
• foul ball - A batted ball that is hit outside of the 1st and 3rd baselines. Foul balls are counted as a strike against the batter, but the batter cannot strike out via a foul.

Rules

Baseball is played at several levels and the rules of the game, though they are alike in broad outline, vary in their details depending upon whether we are referring to Major League Baseball (MLB), collegiate baseball, or high school baseball. Each version is governed by its own particular jurisdictional authority which has control over the adoption and implementation of the rules for that level of play. The following outline refers to the common features of all games of baseball.

Field of play

The baseball field is divided into two basic areas: the infield and the outfield. The infield contains four bases which are arranged in a square. In one corner of this square is located home plate. The other three bases are located at the other corners of the infield square and are called (in counterclockwise order) the first, second, and third base.

The entire field of play is defined by: a) two lines (called the foul lines) extending from home plate down to and beyond the first and third bases; and b) the outfield fence, which is a roughly circular arc connecting the two foul lines at some distance (in major league baseball, typically varying between 250 and 400 feet) from the home plate.

The area contained within the right angle defined by the first and third base lines and extended out to the outfield fence is called fair territory. The region outside these lines to the right and left is foul territory. The refgon beyond the outfield fence but within the extension of the foul lines is home run territory.

Within fair territory the infield is separated from the outfield by a quarter circle just outside of but including the square with the bases. The region of fair territory beyond this circular arc is called the outfield.

Play of the game

For a run, a batter (starting on the home plate) has to reach the first base, and then (as base runner) in sequence the second, the third, and finally again the home plate.

The goal of the game is to score the most runs by the end of the game. A game normally consists of nine innings.
Before the start of the game the batting order is determined. It remains fixed for the whole game.
During an inning, first (in the top) the guest team has the offensive and nominates batters, while the home team has the defensive and nominate the pitchers and the catchers and distribute players in the field near the bases. This half lasts until three offensive players are eliminated (out). During the second half (in the bottom) the roles are exchanged.
In the event of a tie, additional innings are played until there is a winner.

The opposing pitcher (positioned on the pitcher's mound) throws the ball towards the batter (positioned on the home plate) who tries to hit the ball. He makes a mistake

if he fails to hit a correctly thrown ball (a strike),

if he attempts but fails to hit an incorrectly thrown ball (a strike), and

if he bats the ball into foul territory (a foul ball).

He is eliminated

after three mistakes (a strikeout), or

if his ball is caught by a member of the defensive team (an out).

A pitch is incorrect (a ball) if the ball does not pass the prescribed area above the home plate (the strike zone).

When the ball is put into play, the batter tries to advance to 1st base. If the batter gets to first base before the opposing team can throw the ball there and secure it, then he is safe. If the opposing team throws and secures the ball before the batter arrives at first base, then the batter is called out. The idea for the offensive (batting) team is to continue around the basepath in a counterclockwise motion and get to each base (1st, 2nd & 3rd) without getting thrown out or tagged out. The final touch is to make it back to home plate without getting thrown out or tagged out. Once a batter crosses home plate, the offensive team is awarded a run. The team with the most runs at the end of the game wins. It is the only popular sport where the defense is in possession of the ball.

History

Origins

Baseball can trace its origins back to the English stick and ball games of cricket and rounders, arriving in America with the early colonists. Baseball mythology attributes the creation of the game to Abner Doubleday in 1839, who is said to have come up with the rules and the name "baseball" during a game of "town ball" in Cooperstown, New York. The "creation myth" associated with Doubleday is credited to Albert Spalding and the Mills Commission whose controversial ruling in 1905 solidified the myth that baseball was created by the Civil War General in his youth in Cooperstown, New York. Subsequent research has proven that Doubleday was not in Cooperstown, NY in 1839, nor had he ever mentioned baseball in any of his subsequent memoirs. Spalding and Harry Wright had a friendly bet over the origins of the sport. Wright claimed the origins of baseball to be in the British game rounders, while Spalding and his strong sense of nationalism claimed that the sport and its attributes matched the character of Americans. Spalding's Mills Commission attributed the founding of the sport to Doubleday through the supposed testimony of Abner Graves, who claimed to have seen Doubleday write the rules of the sport in a schoolyard in Cooperstown, New York sometime in the late 1830's or early 1840's. It was Spalding who pinpointed the exact date of the genesis of baseball to 1839. However, it can be more accurately attributed to Alexander Cartwright. In 1845, at the urging of Cartwright, a group of young gentlemen from Manhattan formerly organized themselves as the New York Knickerbocker Base Ball Club. At the time, baseball had no standard set of rules and could be played differently from game to game. The Knickerbockers developed the first formal set of rules for the game, including establishing foul lines, the strikeout, and runners now were to be tagged or thrown out instead of being thrown at. The Knickerbockers played their first game on July 19, 1846 at the Elysian Fields in Hoboken, New Jersey, against the New York Base Ball Club, losing by a score of 23 to 1. New York City was growing rapidly and new clubs continued to be created, leading to more formal games. In 1857, the 16 organized clubs formed he National Association of Base Ball Players, which played under Knickerbocker rules. The 1850's also saw the adoption of more modern rules; nine players on each team, the bases moved to 90 feet apart, the ball was modified from the current lightweight ball to a harder, horsehide covered rubber ball designed to be hit and thrown harder and faster, and declaring the team with the most runs at the end of nine innings the winner.

The popularity of baseball spread rapidly, reaching most of American in the 1860's. Up until 1869, baseball was played as an amateur game. That changed with the Cincinnati Red Stockings, the first professional team, which was financed by Harry Wright.

Statistics

Baseball is a sport driven by statistics, with records kept for every facet of a players career from batting average to innings pitched. The all-time leaders in areas such as home runs and strikeouts are revered by fans of all teams.

Statistics are deemed to be so important to the game of baseball that in the 1970s statisticians developed various methods of using them in attempting to objectively analyze baseball performances. Pioneered by Bill James, the study of sabermetrics has become a popular tool used by general managers in Major League Baseball to fill out their rosters with players that bring the greatest value to the team.