Baseball is a bat-and-ball Bat-and-ball games are field games played by two teams. The teams alternate between "batting" and "fielding" roles, sometimes called "in at bat" and "out in the field", or simply in and out. Only the batting team may score, so the fielding team is defending, but they have equal chances in both roles. The sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs In baseball, a run is scored when a player advances around first, second and third base and returns safely to home plate, touching the bases in that order, before three outs are recorded. A player may score by hitting a home run or by any combination of plays that puts him safely "on base" as a runner and subsequently brings him home by hitting a thrown ball A baseball is a ball used primarily in the sport of the same name, baseball. The ball features a rubber or cork center, wrapped in yarn and covered in leather. It is 9 to 9.25 inches in circumference and weighs between 5.0 and 5.25 ounces (inclusive). The yarn or string used to wrap the baseball can be up to one mile in length with a bat A baseball bat is a smooth wooden or metal club used in the game of baseball to hit the ball after the ball is thrown by the pitcher. It is no more than 2.75 inches in diameter at the thickest part and no more than 42 inches in length. It typically weighs no more than 33 ounces (1 kg). The batter uses the bat two-handed to try to hit a pitched and touching a series of four bases A baseball field, also called a ball field or a baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The terms "baseball field" and "ball field" are also often used as synonyms for ballpark arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team (the batting team The "Official Baseball Rules" govern all professional play in the United States and Canada, including the World Baseball Classic. The complete rules are published as the Official Baseball Rules at MLB.com, the official web site of Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. The rules are also published in book form in North) take turns hitting against the pitcher In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter who attempts to either make contact with it or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the pitcher is assigned the number 1. In the National League and the of the other team (the fielding team The "Official Baseball Rules" govern all professional play in the United States and Canada, including the World Baseball Classic. The complete rules are published as the Official Baseball Rules at MLB.com, the official web site of Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. The rules are also published in book form in North), which tries to stop them from scoring runs by getting hitters out In baseball, an out occurs when the defensive, or fielding, team effects any of a number of different events, and the umpire rules a batter or baserunner out. When a player is called out, he is said to be retired. When three outs are recorded in an inning during a team's turn at offense, it is said that "the side is retired." in any of several ways. A player on the batting team can stop at any of the bases and later advance via a teammate's hit In baseball statistics, a hit , also called a base hit, is credited to a batter when the batter safely reaches first base after hitting the ball into fair territory, without the benefit of an error or a fielder's choice or other means. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the fielding team records three outs. One turn at bat for each team constitutes an inning An inning, or innings, is a fixed-length segment of a game in any of a variety of sports – most notably cricket and baseball during which one team attempts to score while the other team attempts to prevent the first from scoring. In cricket, the term innings is both singular and plural and is always spelled and pronounced with the terminal " and nine innings make up a professional game. The team with the most runs at the end of the game wins.
Evolving from older bat-and-ball games, an early form of baseball was being played in England by the mid-eighteenth century. This game and the related rounders Rounders is a game played between two teams each alternating between batting and fielding. The game originated in England and has been played there since Tudor times, with the earliest reference being in 1745 in A Little Pretty Pocket-Book where it is called "baseball". It is a striking and fielding team game, which involves hitting a were brought by British and Irish immigrants to North America, where the modern version of baseball developed The history of baseball in the United States can be traced to the 18th century, when amateurs played a baseball-like game by their own informal rules using improvised equipment. The popularity of the sport inspired the semi and fully professional baseball clubs in the 1860s. By the late nineteenth century, baseball was widely recognized as the national sport A national sport or national pastime is a sport or game that is considered to be an intrinsic part of the culture of a nation. Some sports are de facto national sports, as baseball is in the U.S., while others are de jure as lacrosse and ice hockey are in Canada of the United States. Baseball on the professional, amateur, and youth levels is now popular in North America, parts of Central and South America and the Caribbean, and parts of East Asia. The game is sometimes referred to as hardball, in contrast to the derivative game of softball Softball is a team game commonly played in the United States and other countries. It is a direct descendant of baseball although some key differences are that softballs are larger than baseballs and the pitches are thrown underhand rather than overhand. Softball is played on a smaller diamond than in baseball; a softball field's average distances.
In North America, professional Major League Baseball Major League Baseball is the highest level of play in North American professional baseball. Specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates the National League and the American League by a joint organizational structure that has developed gradually between them since 1901 (the National League having been in existence (MLB) teams are divided into the National League (NL) and American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, that eventually aspired to major league status. The league is often called the Junior (AL). Each league has three divisions: East, West, and Central. Every year, the major league champion is determined by playoffs The Major League Baseball postseason is an elimination tournament held after the conclusion of Major League Baseball's regular season. It consists of one best-of-five series and two best-of-seven series that culminate in the World Series The World Series has been the annual championship series of the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada since 1903, concluding the postseason of Major League Baseball. Since the Series takes place in October, sportswriters many years ago dubbed the event the Fall Classic; it is also sometimes known as the October. Four teams make the playoffs from each league: the three regular season division winners, plus one wild card The term wild card refers broadly to a tournament or playoff berth awarded to an individual or team that has not qualified through normal play team. Baseball is the leading team sport in both Japan and Cuba, and the top level of play is similarly split between two leagues: Japan's Central League The Central League or Ce League (セリーグ, Se Rīgu?) is one of Japan's two major professional baseball leagues, the winner of which plays the Japan Series against the winner of the other league, the Pacific League and Pacific League The Pacific League or Pa League (パリーグ, Pa Rīgu?) is one of Japan's two major professional baseball leagues, the other being the Central League; Cuba's West League and East League The Cuban National Series is the primary domestic amateur baseball competition in Cuba. Formed after the dissolution of the Cuban League in the wake of the Cuban Revolution, the Series is a part of the Cuban national baseball system. In the National and Central leagues, the pitcher is required to bat, per the traditional rules. In the American, Pacific, and both Cuban leagues, there is a tenth player, a designated hitter In baseball, the designated hitter rule is the common name for Major League Baseball Rule 6.10, an official position adopted by the American League in 1973 that allows teams to designate a player, known as the designated hitter , to bat in place of the pitcher each time he would otherwise come to home plate, rather than replace him by pinch-, who bats for the pitcher. Each top-level team has a farm system In sports, a farm team, farm system, feeder team or nursery club, is generally a team or club whose role is to provide experience and training for young players, with an agreement that any successful players can move on to a higher level at a given point. This system can be implemented in many ways, both formally and informally of one or more minor league teams Minor league baseball is a hierarchy of professional baseball leagues in North America and South America that compete at levels below that of Major League Baseball. All of the minor leagues are operated as independent businesses, and many are members of Minor League Baseball, an umbrella organization for leagues that have agreements to operate as. These teams allow younger players to develop as they gain on-field experience against opponents with similar levels of skill.
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History
History of baseballOrigins of baseball
Main article: Origins of baseballThe evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision. A French manuscript from 1344 contains an illustration of clerics playing a game, possibly la soule, with similarities to baseball.[1] Other old French games such as théque, la balle au bâton, and la balle empoisonée also appear to be related.[2] Consensus once held that today's baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular in Great Britain and Ireland. Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game (2005), by David Block, suggests that the game originated in England; recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of each other, and that the game's most direct antecedents are the English games of stoolball and "tut-ball".[3] It has long been believed that cricket also descended from such games, though evidence uncovered in early 2009 suggests that the sport may have been imported to England from Flanders.[4]
The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, by John Newbery. It contains a rhymed description of "base-ball" and a woodcut that shows a field set-up somewhat similar to the modern game—though in a triangular rather than diamond configuration, and with posts instead of ground-level bases.[5] English lawyer William Bray recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford, Surrey; Bray's diary was verified as authentic in September 2008.[6] This early form of the game was apparently brought to North America by English immigrants. Rounders was also brought to the continent by both British and Irish immigrants. The first known American reference to baseball appears in a 1791 Pittsfield, Massachusetts, town bylaw prohibiting the playing of the game near the town's new meeting house.[7] By 1796, a version of the game was well-known enough to earn a mention in a German scholar's book on popular pastimes. As described by Johann Gutsmuths, "englische Base-ball" involved a contest between two teams, in which "the batter has three attempts to hit the ball while at the home plate". Only one out was required to retire a side.[8]
By the early 1830s, there were reports of a variety of uncodified bat-and-ball games recognizable as early forms of baseball being played around North America. These games were often referred to locally as "town ball", though other names such as "round-ball" and "base-ball" were also used.[9] Among the earliest examples to receive a detailed description—albeit five decades after the fact, in a letter from an attendee to Sporting Life magazine—took place in Beachville, Ontario, Canada, in 1838. There were many similarities to modern baseball, and some crucial differences: five bases (or byes); first bye just 18 feet (5.5 m) from the home bye; batter out if a hit ball was caught after the first bounce.[10] The once widely accepted story that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in Cooperstown, New York, in 1839 has been conclusively debunked by sports historians.[11]
In 1845, Alexander Cartwright, a member of New York City's Knickerbockers club, led the codification of the so-called Knickerbocker Rules.[12] The practice, common to bat-and-ball games of the day, of "soaking" or "plugging"—effecting a putout by hitting a runner with a thrown ball—was barred. The rules thus facilitated the use of a smaller, harder ball than had been common. Several other rules also brought the Knickerbockers' game close to the modern one, though a ball caught on the first bounce was, again, an out and only underhand pitching was allowed.[13] While there are reports that the New York Knickerbockers played games in 1845, the contest now recognized as the first officially recorded baseball game in U.S. history took place on June 19, 1846, in Hoboken, New Jersey: the "New York Nine" defeated the Knickerbockers, 23–1, in four innings.[14] With the Knickerbocker code as the basis, the rules of modern baseball continued to evolve over the next half-century.[15]
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Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:01:58 GMT+00:00
Waiver Wire: National League Only Edition for Week 22 Bleacher Report He also threw a near perfect game against Team Canada while pitching for Team USA in the '09 World Baseball Classic. Leubke has only logged a combined 114 ...
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Sat, 10 Jul 2010 22:35:50 PDT
While the US is embroiled in a debate over restricting illegal immigrants, the gates have been flung open for one special category of foreigners ... youtube.com.
Tim Zinnecker
Sat, 28 Aug 2010 14:00:00 GM
Today's question comes from Jeff Yates, a professor of political science at Binghamton University (and a recent visitor at Florida State's law school). Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in 1961, setting a new season record.
