A game played between two teams of 9 players on a field with four bases, spaced at 90 feet apart. The objective is to score as many points as possible by touching each base in succession without being tagged out by the opposing team’s fielders. The team with the most points at the end of 9 innings is declared the winner. Baseball is played in all sorts of conditions (streets, parks, alleys, school playgrounds) with a variety of implements (rag toys as balls and sticks as bats). It’s the quintessential American sport. There is something about it that gives fans goosebumps, gives them that almost religious feel that goes beyond the actual game. It’s the fact that a player catches the ball with his hands and then throws it to first base, not just to make a play but to break a century old curse; it’s Bill Buckner making an error in a crucial game and prolonging a century long curse another seventeen years; it’s Aaron Boone hitting a tying home run in the ninth inning to give his team the lead; it’s CC Sabathia delivering a brilliant performance in a huge game; it’s Mickey Mantle claiming his place as the all time home run king even though he only hit 583 of them; it’s Lou Gehrig walking off the mound after his final at bat and breaking the longest consecutive streak of games played without a hit, the Curse of the Bambino.
The game begins when a member of the defensive team, called a pitcher, throws the ball to a batter who stands at home plate. The batter tries to put the ball into play by hitting it with his bat to a location inside the foul lines that separate the infield from the outfield. If he does, he becomes a “base runner” who must touch all four bases in order to score. The defensive team tries to prevent him from running by tagging him before he reaches the next base or by catching the ball and throwing it to first base before he can be tagged.
Fielding positions include a pitcher, catcher, first baseman, second baseman, shortstop and third baseman in the infield; and left fielder, center fielder and right fielder in the outfield. The players use gloves that are usually made of leather or rubber, and they wear batting helmets, body pads, leg guards, chest protectors, shinguards and spiked shoes.
The hitter transfers his body momentum into bat speed by sequential summation of movement: the hips and legs turn, then the torso, then the arms and finally the wrists, creating a powerful whip action that sends the ball flying through the air. It takes at least 43 thousandths of a second for the decision-making cells in the brain to process information about the ball’s velocity and trajectory and decide whether to swing. This delay is why so many seasoned batters are able to pause for a fraction of a second and check their swing.