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Have you ever been watching a baseball game with
someone who does not know the
sport?
Can you remember their questions: "What are they
doing?", "Why are they doing that?", "What's
happening?". Well, here are some simple baseball
fundamentals and guidelines that you can use to
explain the game of baseball to a beginning fan
of America's Favorite Past time.
Do not assume that just because someone was
raised in the United States, that they will
understand how baseball is played. Even though
baseball is played in every state, city, and
county of this country, there are still people
out there who for one reason or another, have
never learned the fundamentals of playing
baseball.
The Positions
Baseball is played on a "diamond". The infield
which is bordered by home plate, first base,
second base, and third base, is actually diamond
in shape. In the middle of the infield is the
pitcher's
mound where the pitcher stands to pitch the
ball. The catcher crouches behind home plate and
"catches" the pitches that are thrown by the
pitcher. First base is covered by the first
baseman, second base by the second baseman, and
third base by the third baseman. The short stop,
who covers the area between second and third
base, completes the infield.
The outfield is an arcing shape that extends
beyond the infield and is bordered by the first
and third baselines. The outfield is covered by
a left, center and right fielder (positions are
from the batter's perspective when facing the
outfield). Ordinarily, the deepest part of the
outfield will extend roughly 400 feet from home
plate in the major leagues.
Each team will play with nine players at a time.
Each of the positions has a number that
corresponds to it:
1
Pitcher
2
Catcher
3
First Baseman
4
Second Baseman
5
Third Baseman
6
Short Stop
7
Left Fielder
8
Center Fielder
9
Right Fielder
Playing the Game
A
baseball game is played for nine innings. An
inning lasts through both teams being at bat
through three outs. To start the game, the
visiting team will be up at bat first while the
home
team
takes the field. The at bat team will bat in an
order determined prior to the start of the game
by the team's manager. The manager will attempt
to put good lead off batters at the top of the
batting order and power, or homerun, hitters in
the clean -up positions of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th
batters. Generally, the catcher and the pitcher
(in the
National
League)
will end the batting order.
The goal of baseball is to score runs. In order
to score a run, a batter must safely touch
first, second, and third bases and end back at
home plate. There are many ways for a batter to
get on base:
1. Hit: the batter hits the ball with a bat and
makes it safely to base. The types of hits are:
a. Single:The batter makes it safely to first
base
b. Double: The batter makes it safely to second
base without stopping
c. Triple: The batter makes it safely to third
base without stopping
d. Homerun: The batter makes it safely around
all bases, back to home without stopping.
Traditionally a batter will hit the ball into
the stands, through fair territory in order to
get a homerun. In the park homeruns can occur
with hard to field hits and very fast base
runners. Hank Aaron holds the career record for
homeruns with 755.
Mark
McGwire
holds the single season homerun record with 70.
e. Grand Slam: When the batter hits a homerun
with all the bases occupied by
runners
(or "loaded"), he has hit a grand slam. Lou
Gehrig holds the record for career grand slams
with 23.
2. Walk: the batter is pitched four balls, the
batter may proceed to first base.
3. Hit by a pitch: the pitcher hits the batter
with the ball, the batter may proceed to first
base. If the batter intentionally moves into the
path of the pitch, it is considered a strike.
4. Error: If a fielder fails to make a play that
they should have been able to make (e.g.
dropping a routine fly) and the batter makes it
safely to base, it is considered an error as
opposed to a hit.
It is the goal of the fielding team to make the
plays that will get three batters out in each
inning. There are many different ways for a
fielder to make an out. The most common are:
Tag: The base runner is tagged with the ball on
his way to base but is not on the base.
Force: A force out occurs when the runner has a
runner on the base behind him. There is always a
force out at first for the batter, as that is
the batter's only base choice. A runner at
second with no one on first does not face a
force out since the batter will have the choice
of proceeding to third or staying on second. A
fielder causes the force by tagging the base
that runner needed to advance to.
Fly : A fly out occurs on a
fly
ball
that is caught.
Strikeout: The batter is out with any three of
the following: thrown strikes, swung at and
missed strikes, or foul balls for strikes one
and two.
Double Play: Any two outs that occur during the
same at bat.
Missed Tag-up: If a runner fails to tag his base
after a fly ball is caught prior to advancing to
the next base, he can be tagged out or forced
out at his original base.
The Pitching
The pitcher performs what is arguably the most
important role in a game. Pitchers control the
game's tempo and can be credited with a
team's
win
or loss. The goal of any pitcher is to shut down
the opposition and prevent them from scoring any
runs. The pitcher pitches balls, strikes, or hit
balls. The pitcher tries to pitch the ball into
the strike zone, the area over home plate
between a batter's knees and mid-chest area.
Pitches that fall into the strike zone and are
not hit, pitches that are swung-on and missed,
or foul balls hit before the batter has two
strikes against him, are all counted as strikes.
Pitches that fall outside of the strike zone and
are not swung-on, are considered balls. Four
balls, and the batter walks, three strikes, and
the batter is out. The count is the number of
balls and strikes each batter has.
A
pitcher will have several different pitches that
he can throw. The pitcher will want to keep the
batter guessing as to what kind of pitch will be
coming across the plate next. The more pitches
that a pitcher has in his repertoire, the more
difficult he will be for batters to read. Some
of the different types of pitches are: fastball,
curveball, sinking curveball, slider, breaking
ball, change-up, forkball, and split-finger
fastball.
Just as there are different types of pitches,
there are also different types of pitchers who
will be called in to pitch at different points
in the game. The starting pitcher is the pitcher
who begins pitching at the start of the game. A
reliever, or mid-reliever, is a pitcher who is
brought into the game to replace a struggling
pitcher. The closer is a pitcher who is brought
in at the end of the game, usually the ninth
inning, while his team is ahead, to close the
game with a save.
The pitcher has to know where all the base
runners are at all times. Base runners will
attempt to advance bases through "steals". The
pitcher will need to keep the runner on or close
to base without balking. A balk occurs when a
pitcher makes an illegal maneuver such as
throwing to a base after having already started
his pitching windup. When a pitcher balks, all
base runners are allowed to advance a base.
The Game Ends
The game is over if after nine innings, one team
is ahead of the other. If the home team is ahead
after 8 1/2 innings, there is no need for them
to take their last ups. In case of a tie game,
both teams will continue to play complete
innings until the score is no longer tied, and
both teams have had their turn at bat in the
inning.
Baseball can be an exciting game to watch,
especially when your team is winning. It can be
even more fun when you share your love of the
game with a friend who knows a little something
about baseball. Batter up!
It is recommended
that you go right to the good stuff.
Click the
Know Your Position
button to learn all about playing the
different positions. Clicking on
the
Practice
button will bring you to suggestions on
how to practice what you learn. If you
ever wonder about the use of pronouns
throughout the site, then come back here
to read below. Otherwise, play
well.
Learning Baseball
This site is designed to make the
individual player a better team player.
By shaping yourself into the best player
you can be, you can become a team
leader. A positive attitude is
contagious, and you get it from the
confidence gained from earnest practice.
Off-the-field learning, like from this
site, along with mental imagery, not
only improves your confidence, but also
develops your actual abilities. This
site will help you with all of these
aspects of your game, and bring
you needed knowledge to help your team
(our team) win, regardless of the score.
I put this site
together for the use of my Junior Little
League team, but it can be used by
anyone with an interest to learn more
about baseball, and especially anyone
who would like to help others
learn about baseball. Knowledge
presented here is gained from years of
enjoying the game of baseball, and
admittedly can be erroneous. I'm
not claiming authority, nor am I trying
to sell anything on this site. The
intention is to develop a free site
where anyone interested could learn how
to play baseball.
This site is
not one to learn, for example, which
foot to step out of the batter's box
with when you're heading for first.
But it is one that will tell you
that the left foot is the most efficient
one to tag first base with when you're
rounding the bag to second. So we
won't always get into the
very basic basics. It is
assumed that the reader knows them or
can find them elsewhere (if not, ask
here).
And more important than that is the fact
that the key to learning baseball is
having a good coach. Find one, and
learn.
Our Team
Whenever the Team is mentioned
throughout this site it includes
everyone. Those on the field,
those on the bench. Anyone who
does his best, anyone who
tries to do his best, as well as
anyone who would rather not. If you
disagree with the slackers approach to
the game, show him a better way by your
own example. To play on a
non-professional team you don't have to
be great, but there is always a
difference between playing on a
team and playing with a team.
The latter is the way to
championships. Make it your job to see
that every one of your teammates does
his best for the team. This can be
accomplished not by threats, but by
example and encouragement. Learn
to respect the efforts of your
teammates. If they are trying
their best to make plays because
baseball is fun, do all you can to help
them succeed. Show them how you
"step it up" when the game requires the
added effort, and encourage everyone's
participation. You are a team
leader. Lead them to winning ways,
and the game will take care of itself.
Our Language
It's a shame that our paternal society
hasn't developed a genderless pronoun,
one that signifies either a male or
female individual. Although
baseball is by no means a male-only
sport, this site will take advantage of
our etymological deficiencies and use
male pronouns when talking about our
team, and female pronouns when referring
to our opponents. This in no way
is intended to portray a
chauvinistic belief, but rather to avail
a writing style from the limits of our
language. I too wish that our
language had a non-gender pronoun better
than "it." But, since our team
only has guys on it, we'll use "him" and
"his," thus eliminating the need for the
dreaded his/her keystrokes.
Also, when we
speak of our teammates, we'll use
symbols like 1st and 2nd; and when we
speak of the bases, we'll use words like
first and second. It's just the
way we'll do it. The number and
letter symbols will designate the
persons of our team, and the position
names will mean the position.
Enough about this language disclaimer.
This is why I mentioned above to skip
this page and get right to the good
stuff.
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