Have you felt completely lost watching a baseball game? Don’t panic, the discipline is simpler than it seems and this article is here to present the essential rules to know.
Baseball is an opposing team sport two teams of nine players. A part is divided into nine inningsthemselves split into two half sleeves. In each half-inning, one team is on offense. The hitters. Taking turns at bat, their goal is to become a runner and reach first base, then the second, the third and the fourth. A runner who managed to rallying the four bases brings a point to your team.
Facing them, their adversaries are in defense. Their mission is to achieve eliminate three attackers to end the half-set. At the end of nine rounds, the game ends. The team with the most points wins..
Field
A baseball field is divided into two zones. The first, and the smaller of the two, is called the infield. This is where the heart of the action takes place. We find the launcher there (a defender), placed in the center, at the level of the pitcher’s mound, and responsible for sending the ball to his receiver while avoiding that the hitter opponent can intercept it. Bat in hand, the latter is positioned 18 meters from the launcher, just in front the receiver opponent. Around these three men are the four bases forming a square rhombus called a diamond. Spaced 27.43 meters apart, the first base is located to the right of the batter and the last (called home plate) right next to him. Each batter-turned-runner must circle these four bases to score a run.
Behind the infield and between the boundary lines is the outfield. A large grassy area delimited at the end by a fence line. Varying in size depending on the size of the stadium, this is where some of the defenders are placedin order to intercept the opposing drummer’s strike as quickly as possible.
The role of attackers
Every half inning, the attacking team is the only one able to score points. Each of the nine players takes turns batting. Their goal: to become a runner. There are several ways to achieve this.
- By hitting the ball, then running to first base, before the defenders can bring the ball to that base. If they have enough time, they can run to second base, third base or complete the entire circle in one go. This last action is called a home run.
- When the opposing thrower makes four consecutive shots deemed invalid by the referee. In other words, when the ball fired by the pitcher towards the batter leaves a virtual zone (the strike zone) as wide as marble, going, in height, from the batter’s knee to the middle of his chest.
- When the pitch hits the batter.
- When the catcher behind the batter fails to catch the ball after a third throw.
Once a batter becomes a runner and arrives at a base, one of his teammates becomes a batter. The runners remain at their respective bases and can attempt to advance one more base during the new batter’s turn. To achieve this, they must run to the next base before a defender in possession of the ball gets there, or risk being out. When a runner manages to reach all four bases, he scores a point for his team.
The role of defenders
Faced with their adversaries, the defenders’ mission is toeliminate three attackers and thus end the half-set. There are several ways to cause an attacker to be eliminated:
- The striker is out if the ball he sent is caught in mid-air by a defenderbefore she even hit the ground.
- The batter is out if the ball sent by the pitcher misses three times.
- A runner is eliminated if he is hit during his course by the ball or by a defender holding the ball in his hand.
- A runner is eliminated if a defender in possession of the ball arrives first on the target base by the runner.
In order to cover the entire field, the seven field defenders (apart from the pitcher and the catcher) are distributed over the entire surface of the latter. Four of them are located within the infield and cover the bases, while the other three are located in the outfield. To get the ball back to a base as quickly as possible, outfield defenders make long passes to their teammates located in the infield.
Once three attackers have been eliminated, the half-round ends and the roles reverse. The attackers go to defense and the defenders go to bat.
A baseball game ends after nine innings of play. Sometimes, it happens that two teams find themselves tied on points. To decide between them, one or more additional rounds are added, until one of the two teams comes away with a score.
2024-02-14 20:37:48
#Rules #Baseball
