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Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal of baseball is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four markers called bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team (the batting team) take turns hitting while the other team (the fielding team) tries to stop them from scoring runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the batting team can stop at any of the bases and hope to score on a teammate's hit. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the fielding team gets three outs. One turn at bat for each team constitutes an inning; nine innings make up a professional game. The team with the most runs at the end of the game wins.

Baseball on the professional, amateur, and youth levels is popular in North America (particularly in the United States), Central America, parts of South America and the Caribbean, and parts of East Asia and Southeast Asia. The game is thought to have originated in England some time before 1755, as noted by William Bray, a lawyer from the period whose diary historians have recently authenticated[2][3][4][5]. The consensus of historians is that it evolved from earlier bat-and-ball games, such as cricket and rounders. Baseball was then brought to North America by British and Irish immigrants. This is contrary to the popular belief that the game was invented in North America during the eighteenth century. However, by the late nineteenth century, baseball was widely recognized as the national sport of the United States. The game is sometimes referred to as hardball in contrast to the very similar game of softball.

In North America, professional Major League Baseball teams are divided into the National League (NL) and American League (AL). Each league has three divisions: East, West, and Central. Every year, the champion of Major League Baseball is determined by playoffs culminating in the World Series. Four teams make the playoffs from each league: the three regular season division winners, plus one wild card team. The wild card is the team with the best record among the non–division winners in the league. In the National League, the pitcher is required to bat, per the traditional rules. In the American League, there is a tenth player, a designated hitter, who bats for the pitcher. Each major league team has a "farm system" of minor league teams at various levels. These teams allow younger players to develop as they gain on-field experience against opponents with similar levels of skill.

History
Origins of baseball

The story that Abner Doubleday invented baseball in 1839 was once widely promoted and widely believed, but there was and is no evidence for this claim, except for the testimony of one man decades after the fact, and there is a great deal of persuasive counter-evidence. Doubleday left many letters and papers, but they contain no description of baseball or even a suggestion that he considered himself a prominent person in the history of the game. His New York Times obituary makes no mention of baseball, nor does a 1911 encyclopedia article about Doubleday.

The distinct evolution of baseball from among the various bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision. Oina, a very similar bat-and-ball traditional game played in Romania was mentioned for the first time during the rule of King Vlaicu Voda, in 1364. Typically, consensus was that today's baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, however a 2005 book Baseball Before We Knew It: A Search for the Roots of the Game, by David Block, and historical evidence argues against that notion. Several references to "baseball" and "bat-and-ball" have been found in British and American documents of the early eighteenth century. The earliest known description is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, by John Newbery. It contains a wood-cut illustration of boys playing "base-ball," showing a baseball set-up roughly similar to the modern game, and a rhymed description of the sport. However, on September 11th 2008, the Surrey County Council's History Centre gave documentary proof that the game was being played by the British before anywhere else and have written to Major League Baseball explaining this[8]. The diarist William Bray recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford[9]. The earliest known unambiguous American discussion of "baseball" was published in a 1791 Pittsfield, Massachusetts town bylaw, which prohibited the playing of the game within 80 yards (70 m) of the town's new meeting house.[10] The English novelist Jane Austen made a reference to children playing "base-ball" on a village green in her book Northanger Abbey, which was written between 1798 and 1803 (though not published until 1818).

The first full documentation of a baseball game in North America is Dr. Adam Ford's contemporary description of a game that took place in 1838 on June 4 (Militia Muster Day) in Beachville, Ontario, Canada; this report was related in an 1886 edition of Sporting Life magazine in a letter by former St. Marys, Ontario, resident Dr. Matthew Harris.

In 1845, Alexander Cartwright of New York City led the codification of an early list of rules (the so-called Knickerbocker Rules), from which today's rules have evolved. He had also initiated the replacement of the soft ball used in rounders with a smaller hard ball.[14] While there are reports of Cartwright's club, the New York Knickerbockers, playing games in 1845, the game now recognized as the first in U.S. history to be officially recorded took place on June 19, 1846, in Hoboken, New Jersey, with the "New York Nine"defeating the Knickerbockers, 23–1, in four innings.

History of baseball in the United States

Semiprofessional baseball started in the United States in the 1860s. In 1869 the first fully professional baseball club, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, was formed and went undefeated against a schedule of semipro and amateur teams. By the following decade, American newspapers were referring to baseball as the "National Pastime" or "National Game." The first attempt at forming a "major league" was the National Association, which lasted from 1871 to 1875. The "major league" status of the NA is in dispute among present-day baseball historians, and Major League Baseball does not include the NA among the major leagues. The National League, which still exists, was founded in 1876 in response to the NA's shortcomings. Several other major leagues formed and failed, but the American League, which evolved from the minor Western League (1893) and was established in 1901 as a major league, succeeded. The two leagues were initially rivals that actively fought for the best players, often disregarding
one another's contracts and engaging in bitter legal disputes. A modicum of peace was established in 1903, and the World Series was inaugurated that fall, albeit without formal major league sanction or governance. The next year, the National League champion New York Giants did not participate, as their manager, John McGraw, refused to recognize the major league status of the American League and its champion, the Boston Americans who beat the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first World Series. The following year, Giants' management relented, and actually led the formal establishment of rules that standardized the format of the World Series and made participation compulsory.

Compared with the present day, games in the early part of the 20th century were lower scoring and pitchers were more successful. The "inside game", whose nature was to "scratch for runs", was played more violently and aggressively than it is today. Ty Cobb said of his era especially, "Baseball is something like a war!" This period, which has since become known as the "dead-ball era", ended in the 1920s with several rule changes that gave advantages to hitters and the rise of the legendary baseball player Babe Ruth, who showed the world what power hitting could produce, altering the nature of the game. Two of the changes introduced were the construction of additional seating to accommodate the rising popularity of the game, which often had the effect of bringing the outfield fences closer to the infield in the largest parks; and the introduction of strict rules governing the size, shape and construction of the ball which, coupled with superior materials becoming available following World War I, caused the ball to travel farther when hit. The aggregate result of these two changes was to enable batters to hit many home runs.

Rules and gameplay

A single game is played by two teams, who, during the course of a game, alternate playing offense and defense. Each couplet of alternations is called an "inning", and there are usually 9 innings in a game. The goal of a game is to score more points, which are called "runs" in the language of baseball, than the other team. Each team, usually composed of 9 players, attempts to score runs while on offense, by completing a tour of the bases, which form a square-shaped figure called a "diamond." A tour starts at home plate and proceeds counter-clockwise. See the image below.

There are four basic tools of baseball: the bat, the ball, the mitt, and the field.

.The bat is an offensive tool, either made of wood or aluminum depending on the game being played. It is a long, hard stick, about 2 inches (5 centimeters) in diameter, except at the handle, which is about 1-inch (2.5 centimeters) diameter.
.The ball in baseball is about the size of a fist and white (though other colors can be used) with red lacing.
.The glove or mitt is a defensive tool, made of leather, worn on the player's hand to aid in catching the ball. It takes various shapes to meet the unique needs of the defensive position of the player.
.The game is played on a field, whose dimensions vary depending on the age of the players. However, every field has a diamond, with bases at its corners, which the offensive players circumnavigate, as mentioned above. The part of the field closest to the bases is called the infield, and the part most distant from the bases is called the outfield.
Baseball is played in a series of (usually 9) "innings", each of which is divided into two halves (called "top" and "bottom" in that order: hence the phrase bottom of the ninth). In each half-inning, the offensive team attempts to score runs until three of its players are put "out" (removed from play by actions of the defensive team; discussed below). After the third out, the teams switch roles for the other half of the inning. The "home" team plays defense first, and so plays defense in the top of every inning and offense in the bottom of every inning.

At the beginning of each half-inning, the nine defensive players arrange themselves on the field. One defensive player is called the "pitcher" and stands at the center of the diamond on a designated spot, called the mound or the rubber - a reference to the rectangular rubber plate at the center of the mound. Another defensive player is called the "catcher" and stands on the other side of home plate from the pitcher. Typically four more players are arranged along the lines between first, second, and third bases, and the other three are in the outfield.

Runs are scored as follows: starting at home plate, each offensive player attempts to earn the right to run (counterclockwise) to the next base (corner) of the diamond, then to touch the base at that corner, continuing on to each following base in order, and finally returning to home, whereupon a run (point) is scored. Often an offensive player will achieve a base but be forced to stop there; on future plays (usually in concert with other runners), the player may continue to advance, or else be put out.

A play begins with an offensive player called a "batter" standing at home plate, holding a bat. The batter then waits for the pitcher to throw a "pitch" (the ball) toward home plate, and attempts to hit the ball with the bat. If the batter hits the ball into play, the batter must then drop the bat and begin running toward first base. (There are other ways to earn the right to run the bases, such as "walks" or being hit by a pitched ball.) The catcher catches pitches that the batter does not hit (either by choice or simple failure to make contact) and returns them to the pitcher.

A pitch that is not hit into the field of play is called either a "strike" or a "ball". A batter is out if he gets 3 strikes. He walks to first base if he is thrown 4 balls. If the ball is hit over the outfield and exits the field there, it is instead (one type of) a "home run": the batter and all other offensive players on bases may complete a tour of the bases and score a run. This is the most desirable result for the batter.

A strike is called when one of the following happens:

.The batter lets a well-pitched ball (one within the strike zone) go through to the catcher.
.The batter swings at any ball (even one outside the strike zone) and misses.
.The batter hits any ball so that it goes outside the field of play (on either side of foul lines/foul poles). This particular type of strike is not counted as a third strike and hence cannot result in the immediate strikeout of the batter.
A ball is called when the pitcher throws a pitch that is outside the strike zone, provided the batter has not swung at it.

When a batter hits the ball in field of play and he begins running, he or she is then referred to as a "runner." Runners attempt to reach a base, where they are "safe" and may remain there. The defensive players attempt to prevent this by either catching the ball (if it has not bounced), or by putting the runners out by fielding and throwing the ball back to a base the runner is attempting to reach. Runners put out must leave the field (returning to the "bench" or "dugout", the location where all the other inactive players and managers observe the game).

There are many ways that the team on defense can get an offensive player out. For the sake of simplicity, only the five most common ways are listed here:

1.The "strikeout": occurs when the batter acquires three strikes before hitting the ball (within the field); the batter never becomes a runner. (Hence the phrase "Three strikes and you are out".)
2.The "ground out": when the batter hits the ball but a defensive player retrieves it after it has touched the ground and throws it to another defensive player standing on first base before the runner arrives there.
3.The "forceout": occurs when a runner is required to run to advance bases ahead of a teammate's hit but fails to reach it before a defensive player reaches the base with the ball. The "ground out" is actually a special case of "force out."
4.The "flyout": if a defensive player catches a hit ball before it touches the ground, the batter (now a runner) is out (regardless of his location).
5.The "tag out": while between bases, a runner is out if a defensive player touches him with a held ball.