Wednesday, February 2, 2011

What is Baseball?

Baseball is a very popular sport which involves two teams made up of, more or less, nine players. A baseball game is done in what we call a baseball field, a very large and open space where there is a ninety-foot square (or diamond) usually located at the bottom middle of the field. Baseball is oftentimes called a bat-and-ball game wherein a pitcher throws the baseball as fast and as hard as he (or she) could. This action, in baseball terms, is called "pitching". On the other side of the "diamond", we have the batter who will attempt to hit the hard fist-sized baseball using a narrow cylindrical wooden bat. However, if one is not playing professional baseball, only perhaps backyard baseball or such, any long and hard object that will pass as a bat will just do, along with an open space as a field.

Some people find the sport quite boring as it takes a bit long to play, and it is not as exciting a sport for some people as, let us say, basketball. A baseball team will only get the opportunity to score when their team is the one batting. Their players move counter-clockwise past four consecutive markers at the corners of the "diamond" in the baseball field. These markers are called "bases" and are usually coloured black or white. The team's players may advance through hits, but after three outs recorded against the team, they lose the opportunity to score and their half-inning ends. Innings are similar to "quarters" in basketball, and these are the periods wherein each team are given half of the whole inning time to bat and score runs. There are, all in all, nine innings in a baseball game. Baseball is especially popular in the United States and many baseball leagues are done there.

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