Baseball - A Quick Glance

Baseball is a game that is believed to have arrived to the United States through immigrants from Britain and Ireland. The baseball game, according to popular belief, has originated in the Ireland few centuries back. Baseball is a game played between two teams. The batting team bats and the fielding team catches and tries to get the players of the batting team ‘out’ of the game. However, the team that scores the maximum number of ‘runs’ will win the game. Hence, the goal of the game is scoring more points than the rival team and in the language of baseball; points are referred to as ‘runs’.

By running through all the bases in the square shaped field called ‘diamond’, each of the nine member teams will attempt to score runs when they are batting. The process of running through the bases is called a ‘tour’. Starting from the home plate, a player will tour counter clockwise, until he arrives back to the home plate.

Looking at how the game baseball is played, one should first know the basic tools of baseball or in other words - the baseball equipment. They are the bat, the ball, the mitt and the field.

The bat is an offensive tool made of wood or aluminium, is long and hard and has a diameter of about 5 centimetres with a handle of smaller diameter (about 1 inch).

The fist sized white colored, red laced spherical object used in baseball is called the ball.

The mitt which is also known as gloves is worn as defensive baseball equipment and it is made of leather. Wearing the mitt helps in catching the ball. Also, depending upon the needs of the defending position of the player, the shapes of mitts can also differ.

The field on which baseball is played is in the shape of a diamond and its dimensions can change - depending on the players’ age.

Baseball has a series of innings when it is played. Each inning will be divided into two. The nine defensive players will arrange themselves on the field at the beginning of each half-inning of the baseball match, with one defensive player standing at a designated spot in the centre called the mound while another defensive player - the ‘catcher’ will stand at the side of the home plate which is in the other side of the pitcher.

When the batter holding a bat stands at the home plate, and hits the ball that was thrown at him; the game begins and the batter will start running towards the first base. Meanwhile, any runners who are already on the base will try to run to other additional bases. By this time, the catcher should catch the ball and return them to the pitcher.

Those were some of the basic information on baseball - one of the most popular games in the United States of America.