Baseball is a team sport, popular in
the Americas,
East Asia and
Australia. In its usual form, the game is between two teams of
nine players on a playing field consisting of 4 bases, arranged in a
diagonal square ("the diamond") and a large outfield (see
fielding positions for a typical layout).
As the game starts, the home team takes the field, while the
visitors come to bat. After making three outs, the visitors take the
field and the home team bats.
The basic contest is always between the pitcher, who tries to
throw the ball so it cannot be cleanly hit, and the batter, who
tries to hit the pitched ball with a rounded bat. If the batter hits
a "fair ball" into the field of play, the hitter runs to first base
and any of his teammates who are already "on the bases" may attempt
to advance to another base. If a baserunner is already on first
base, they must try to advance or the batter will be out; no two
offensive players may ever stay on the same base. The batting team
scores a
run[?] by advancing a player all the way around the diamond.
If the ball is caught before it bounces, or the ball is fielded
and thrown to a base before a runner arrives there, the player is
out, and must return to his team's dugout. The initial decision to
make first base 90 feet from home plate was an inspired one; it
means that no runner, no matter how fast, can beat the throw to
first of a ball cleanly fielded and properly thrown to first by a
fielder in proper position. But if the fielder is out of position,
or hesitates, or throws wide of the base, the play is often
razor-close, and quite exciting.
There is also an imaginary area above "home plate" (where the
batter stands) between the batter's knees and chest called the
"strike zone". (Actually the "strike zone" varies a good bit
depending on the league level of the teams and is relatively
frequently re-defined by league rules makers.) Any pitch which
passes through this area is a "strike", as is any pitch at which the
batter swings and misses. If a batter records 3 strikes before
putting the ball in play, he is out - called a
strikeout. (An exception is if the third strike evades the
catcher but this rarely occurs.) Any pitch which is not a strike is
called a Ball. A batter who receives 4 balls from a pitcher may
walk to first base and cannot be tagged out. This is called a
"walk." A batter may also move to first base if he is
struck by a pitched ball, unless he puts himself in the path of
the pitch and makes no attempt to avoid being struck. In addition,
if a player does make contact with the ball but does not hit a fair ball, this is called a
foul ball. Whether a ball
hit is fair or foul is defined by two lines, drawn
to the side of the diamond, and by two poles, located to the left
and the right of the outfield. Also, anytime the player hits the
ball backward and it leaves the play area, this is called a foul.
Fouls also count as strikes, unless the player has two strikes
already when hitting the foul, in which case the player must go at
bat for one more turn. If a foul ball is caught by a defensive
player before it bounces, then the hitter is out.
After 3 outs (a "half-inning") the roles of the fielding and
hitting sides are reversed. Usually, 9 innings are played. The aim
of the game is to score more runs than the opposing team. If both
teams have scored the same number of runs at the end of 9 innings,
an extra inning is added to the game. If the score remains tied,
another inning is added. This process repeats until the score is no
longer tied at the end of an inning. Thus, the team which hits in
the second (or "bottom") half of the inning always has a chance to
respond to a run scored by the team batting in the first (or "top")
half. As there are tactical advantages to this, the home team is
always granted the right to bat in the bottom half of the inning.
Baseball games end with tie scores only because of weather or
lighting conditions have made it impossible to continue play. In the
Major Leagues, games in which the score is tied are not counted
towards a team's game total (as technically a tie game is considered
as unfinished), although statistics are retained as long as the game
is of official regulation (five half innings for each team; only
four for the home team if the home team is ahead).
Effective pitching is vitally important in baseball. A pitcher who
starts games should be able to pitch for six or seven innings before
being replaced by specialist relief pitchers, who finish the game
off. For a starter to pitch all 9 innings (a "Complete Game") is a
personal achievement, though this was not always so -- the average
number of innings pitched has been declining slowly in the
professional leagues almost since their inception, and 9 innings was
once the norm. Pitching is also physically demanding: a modern-day
starting pitcher can usually throw 100-110 pitches with no ill
effects, but throwing many more reduces effectiveness, and sometimes
serious and permament arm injury. In a major league season then, a
club usually keeps a cadre of 5 starting pitchers (known as the
"starting rotation") to start games, giving pitchers at least 3 or
(preferably) 4 or 5 days rest between starts.
Five to seven more pitchers are employed as relief pitchers
or relievers, to pitch the innings not handled by the
starting rotation. Today, every team tries to employ one of these
pitchers as a closer -- that is, a relief pitcher
specifically designated to pitch the final inning of a game in which
his team is leading, in order to preserve the win.
In order to prevent the batter from hitting the ball well, a good
pitcher should be able throw a variety of different pitches, which
will usually be a subset of the following basic types.
- Fastball: The fastball is the pitch that
most pitchers throw most of the time. Some "power" pitchers can
throw it 95-100 mph, and rely on this speed to prevent the ball
being hit. Others throw more slowly but put movement on the ball
or throw it on the outside of the plate where the batter cannot
easily reach it. Gripping the ball with the fingers across the
wide part of the seam ("four-seam fastball") produces a straight
pitch, gripping it across the narrow part ("two-seam fastball")
produces a sinking fastball, and holding a two-seam fastball
off-centre ("cut fastball") imparts lateral movement to the
fastball.
- Curve ball: The curve ball is thrown with a
hand motion that induces extra rotation on the ball causing it
to "break," to fly in a more exaggerated curve than would be
expected. The pitch is slower than a fastball, and this
difference in velocity also tends to disrupt the hitter's
timing. Good curve balls often seem to drop sharply as they
reach the plate, making the batter swing above it; but a curve
ball which fails to break (a "hanging curve") will be easy meat
for a good hitter. A Screwball is similar to a
curveball, but thrown from the back of the hand in order to
impart opposite rotation and opposite movement.
- Slider: A slider is half-way between a
curve ball and a fastball, with less break but more speed than
the curve. It will tend to drop less and move toward or away
from the batter more than a curve. The extra speed can fool the
hitter into thinking it's a fastball, until too late. Some
pitchers also use a cut fastball (or cutter) which is one step
closer than the slider to the fastball on the spectrum between
fastballs and curves.
- Change Up: A change up is the traditional
off-speed pitch (i.e. slower than the fastball), which otherwise
resembles a fastball. It is thrown with the same arm action as a
fastball; the speed difference is due to a different grip. This
(hopefully) causes the hitter to be fooled and swing before the
ball arrives. A change up also tends to break slightly in the
same direction as a screwball due to the way it is commonly
released, this makes it an effective pitch away from the plate.
- Knuckleball: Thrown slowly and with a
minimum of rotation, the knuckleball (actually thrown off the
tips of the fingers) relies on chaotic airflow over the stitched
seams of the baseball to produce an erratic, unpredictable
motion. This makes it hard to hit, hard to catch and hard to
aim, and it is consequently not a favorite with catchers and
managers.
- Split-Fingered Fastball / Forkball: Held
between the first two fingers, thrown hard and with a strong
downward motion. This pitch tends to tumble downwards and can
break in either direction, depending on the release. It can be
thrown as hard as 90 mph, so it can look like a fastball until
it breaks near the plate. Most effective when thrown in the
lower part of the strike zone.
The pitcher will try to make the batter miss the ball entirely
("go out on strikes") or hit it so that it can be handled by one of
the fielders. This generally involves throwing the ball in a way, or
to a location, that the batter is not expecting, causing him to hit
it weakly or not at all. Since it is very difficult to do this, the
batter will often be able to hit the ball strongly. Good fielders
may have some idea of where the pitcher is likely to throw the ball,
and therefore where the hitter is likely to hit it (an "outside"
pitch will generally be hit to the side of the field that the batter
faces, for instance), and may be prepared to field the ball there if
the batter hits it well.
The batter tries to hit the ball in such a way that it cannot be
cleanly handled by a fielder; good hitters can place the ball where
they want with surprising skill. In the early 1900's, place hitting
was a high art, and the
home run was considered a freakish spectacle. Place-hitting was
exemplified by
Willie Keeler's axiom, still shouted today: "Hit 'em where they
ain't."
In 1919,
Babe Ruth broke the standing home run record, and changed
fundamentally the way the game was played, becoming a popular
sensation in the process. The introduction of regularly changed
balls, the new cork-centered balls introduced in
1910 and the banning of tampering with the balls (with spit or
by scuffing the surface) made the hitters task easier, and the fresh
white balls were easier to see and travelled further, making the
home run more likely. It has also been suggested, although there is
little evidence, that owners had the baseball "juiced", since this
new offensive style was very popular and was helping to redeem the
game after it was rocked by
gambling scandals. Regardless, ever since, the mighty home run
has become the surest way to rouse a crowd. Accordingly, the most
common batting style employed today is the free-swinging style of
Ruth rather than the place-hitting style of Keeler.
Occasionally, players have been caught using illegally modified
corked bats, an action subject to ejection and possible
suspension and fines.
Baseball has an antique, unhurried pace. Both football and
basketball use a clock, and fans must watch games end while one team
degrades the competitive element of the game by "killing the clock"
rather than competing directly against the opposing team. But
baseball has no clock; you cannot win without getting the last man
out, and a rally can start at any time.
(In recent decades, observers have criticized baseball for this,
with some justification as the time required to play a baseball game
has increased steadily through the years. One hundred years ago,
games typically took an hour and a half to play; today, four-hour
nine-inning games are not uncommon. However, this is primarly due to
increased commercial breaks more than a decrease in playing speed.
However, increased offense and more pitching changes also prolong
the length of the game.)
Baseball is a team game -- even two or three Hall of Fame players
cannot guarantee a pennant by themselves. In the last years of the
20th Century, a trend toward building teams based on a more even
distribution of talent throughout the lineup became noticeable. The
Seattle Mariners and the Florida Marlins were two teams that began
moving away from the previous belief in building teams around
superstars. Team salary caps led to the decision by many owners to
pay more solid players decent money rather than surrounding one or
two expensive superstars with a below-average set of teammates. It
remains to be seen if this strategy will be successful.
Paradoxically, the game places individual players under great
pressure and scrutiny one at a time. The pitcher must make a good
pitch or suffer reproach; no one can help him throw the ball. The
hitter has a millisecond to swing the bat; no one can help him then;
he hits a line drive; the outfielder makes a lonely decision to try
to catch it or play it on the bounce. Baseball history is full of
heroes and goats -- men who in the heat of the moment distinguished
themselves with a timely hit or catch, or an untimely strikeout or
error.
It is a beautiful, leisurely game on the surface; but sudden and
fierce beneath.
"Of all the silly and sentimental things said about baseball, none
is sillier than the description of the game as 'unhurried' or
'leisurely'. Baseball action involves blazing speeds and fractions
of seconds, and is as much a mental contest as a physical one. The
pace of the action is relentless: There is barely enough time
between pitches for all the thinking that is required...."--George
F. Will, "Men At Work: The Craft of Baseball"
Baseball IS leisurely -- for the idle observer. That said, no
other sport packs so much into so little. The pitch and swing of the
bat can, at any time, change the entire game. And how long is that?
Less time than it takes a basketball to leave a shooter's hands,
much less arc to the basket and clang around. A microsecond compared
to the drop-back, plant, pass, catch of a football.
When all is said and done the agony and beauty of sport is
measured in inches, and nowhere is this microcosm as perfect as it
is on a baseball diamond. Two out, bottom of the ninth. Runners at
the corners. Down by two runs. The home field crowd, to a man, on
its feet. The windup. The pitch. Less than half a second later the
result. The crowd breathes again. Foul. Start all over. No other
sport is that cruel. That pure. That measured.
There is a reason that there is no clock in baseball, mere
timepieces are insufficient to measure the beats of the game. Leave
the clocks to the sports that are slow and lumbering... the seven
foot center gallomping to the top of the key, the 250 pound fullback
charging the line. These are the sports where a second or five
matter. Not in baseball. There the time slice is far too fine to be
caught in mere gears. It is an instant that can only be measured in
the skip of a heartbeat or the sudden drop in a stomach. It is the
interval between jubilation and despair.
- Bat: A solid wooden or hollow aluminum bat.
- Ball: A cork sphere, tightly wound with layers of
yarn or string and covered with a stitched leather coat.
- Mitt: Leather glove worn by players in the field.
Long fingers and a webbed "pocket" between the thumb and first
finger allow the fielder to catch the ball more easily.
- Catcher's Mitt: Leather glove worn by Catchers.
Generally larger and better-padded than the standard fielder's
mitt.
- Batting glove: Glove often worn on one or both
hand(s) by the batter. Offers additional grip on the bat.
- Hat: 'Baseball cap' worn by all players
- Batting helmet: Protective helmet worn by batter to
protect the head and the ear facing the pitcher from the ball.
- Catcher's helmet: Protective helmet with face guard
worn by the catcher.
- Baseball Uniform: Shirt and pants worn by all
players. Each team generally has a unique pattern of colors and
designs.
- Athletic supporter and cup: Worn by Catcher, and
often by all players. Protects the male genitals from injury.
'Jockstrap', 'jock' or 'cup supporter'.
- Sliding shorts: Padded support shorts sometimes
worn to protect the thighs when the player slides into the
bases.
- Spikes: Shoes with spikes to provide additional
traction. Historically used by sliding baserunners to intimidate
fielders at the bag.
See Also:
Postseason awards:
- Joe Brinkman and Charlie Euchner, The Umpire's Handbook,
rev. ed. (1987)
- Bill James and John Dewan, Bill James Presents the Great
American Baseball Stat Book, ed. by Geoff Beckman et al.
(1987)
- Robert Peterson, Only the Ball Was White (1970,
reprinted 1984)
- Joseph L. Reichler (ed.), The Baseball Encyclopedia,
7th rev. ed. (1988). (since 1871)
- Lawrence Ritter and Donald Honig, The Image of Their
Greatness: An Illustrated History of Baseball from 1900 to the
Present, updated ed. (1984)
- Lawrence S. Ritter (comp.), The Glory of Their Times:
The Story of the Early Days of Baseball Told by the Men Who
Played It, new ed. (1984)
- David Quentin Voigt, Baseball, an Illustrated History
(1987)
- The Official Baseball Guide,
The Sporting News[?]
- Official Baseball Register,
The Sporting News[?]
