Sports

Baseball is one of the most historic sports that is played in this day and age. It is a sport that is played between two teams with nine players on each side. In the game the pitcher throws the ball toward the batter of the opposing team. The batter will then hit the ball, or try to, with his bat. The bat is made of wood something that is required in professional baseball.

The only way a team can advance its players is when they score a run when batting. There are four bases on which the players will run to and stand on till they can advance further along. First base, second base, third base, and home are the four bases that the players will advance on. When a player lands on home they score a point. Not many points are scored in baseball because it can take awhile for the players to reach home base.

Unlike most sports, baseball is not a timed game. Rather it is played around nine innings. Each innings give both teams the oppurtunities to bat and score their runs. A team’s half-inning is finished when they recieve three outs.

Each of the nine players are given a certain job and are placed in a way that makes them useful to the team. The pitcher is the player who throws the ball to the batter. The batter is the player that hits the ball. Three of the players are set up to gaurd first, second, and third base. Another three players are set in the outfield. And the catcher is the player who stands behind the batter and catches any balls that the batter misses.

If the batter misses the ball then it is either a ’strike’ or a ‘ball’. It is called a strike when the batter missed the ball when he swung or when he didn’t swing, but had the oppurtunity to swing and hit it. After three strikes the batter receives an ‘out’ and that teams’ inning ends. A ball is called when the pitcher threw the ball outside of the batter’s range of hitting and the batter did not swing for it. When a batter receives three balls he is given a walk. This means that he can stop batting and automatically walk to first base. Any player that might have been on first base will move to second.

The job of the players who are in the outfield and who are guarding each of the bases is to catch the balls that the batter hits toward them. If they catch the ball before it hits the ground then they give the batter a strike. If it hits the ground first then they have the oppurtunity to grab the ball and throw it to one of the  players who are guarding the bases. If the first base man catches the ball and steps onto first base before the batter reaches it then he is ‘out’. The team with the most points at the end of all nine innings is the winner.