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Wednesday, 24 October 2007 |
Baseball - what it is and how to play the sport
Baseball is a popular sport played between two teams with nine players in each. It is a bat-and-ball game in which a pitcher throws, or pitches as it is known in baseball jargon, a hard leather-covered ball towards a batter on the other team. The batter then tries to hit the baseball with a tapered cylindrical wooden bat.
The two teams of baseball players take turns at fielding and at batting, with the home team traditionally batting second.
An inning in baseball consists of the batters from each team having turns at batting until three batters are out. A baseball game lasts for nine innings, however, it can be extended into extra innings if the scores are level.
The fielding side for a game of baseball consists of a pitcher who throws the ball, a catcher who attempts to catch balls, four infielders, and three outfielders.
The pitcher throws the baseball overhand, and can employ a variety of deliveries from a raised mound to the home plate, which is a distance of 60.5ft (18.4 m).
The batter for the opposing team tries to hit the pitched baseballs and then get on base, while the fielders do what they can to get the batter out.
Any batter who misses three legitimate pitches, or fails to swing at three pitches, which were judged as hittable by the umpire, is ruled out on strikes, however, if the pitcher throws four pitches outside the strike zone, then the batter gets a base on balls, and receives a walk to first base.
A strike is called as well when the batter swings at a pitch whether it is considered to be in the strike zone or not.
A run is scored every time a player who is batting becomes a runner and crosses the home plate having touched each base in the right order.
When the fielding side have managed to get three batters (or runners) out from their opponent's team, the roles are reversed.
If the score for a baseball is level after nine innings, play carries on into extra innings until one team has scored more than the other in an equal number of turns at batting.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 26 October 2007 )
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