Baseball is an American game in which two teams of nine players each bat and try to score runs. The team with the most runs at the end of the ninth inning wins the game.
The basic rules of the game are that each team has its own pitcher, a catcher and three outfielders. The pitcher throws the ball to home plate, where the catcher waits in a crouched stance behind him. The catcher “calls” the game by hand movements that signal to the pitcher what pitch to throw and where. The catcher’s job is crucial in a game, especially when the batter doesn’t hit the ball or when the pitcher pitches a lot of balls (e.g. if the game is in extra innings) and the batter gets a strike or two, which makes it harder to get a hit.
Pitchers can throw a variety of pitches to the batter, depending on how hard they want to pitch and what kind of swing he wants to take. They can also vary the number of pitches that they throw in an inning, and they may even change their delivery style throughout the game.
The pitcher’s arm must be kept straight and the foot on the pitcher’s rubber–a 24″ x 6″ (
During an inning, the opposing team has one turn at bat and the batting team has one turn at defending, pitching and catching the ball. The batting team’s goal is to get as many hits as possible and score as many runs as they can. The defending team’s goal is to make it impossible for the batting team to score more than three runs.
If the hitter fails to make the base or the fielder touches it with the ball before the runner arrives, then the player is out. This can happen with a single play, a double play or a triple play.
A batter can only be out once in an inning, but he can be out more than once during a game. He can be thrown out by a fielder after he has made it to first base, or he can be thrown out by another defender in between bases.
In a normal game, the batter can have up to three strikes before being out. A hitter is considered out when he misses three consecutive pitches that are within the “strike zone” (the area in front of home plate). If the batter hits four or more balls outside of this area, then the hitter is given a “ball.”
The game of baseball began when nationalistic sentiment drove Americans to develop their own sport. The sport owed nothing to the English game of cricket or German turnvereins, but was developed from the children’s game of rounders.