Baseball is a sport that requires an unusual combination of innate athleticism, strategic thinking, and teamwork. It is a game that rewards those who pay attention and are willing to learn the rules of the game and how to play it from those who know what they’re doing.
The basic game is that two teams of nine players compete to win a game by outscoring their opponents over the course of 9 innings. In case of a tie, extra innings are played until a winner is determined. During an inning, the batting team hits the ball with their bat in an attempt to get it into a safe space out of the reach of the defensive players in the field. If they can do so, the hitter then runs around the bases (or “bases”) without being tagged out.
If a hitter hits the ball over a teammate on another base, they can advance to that base and all other bases as well. If they manage to run all the way to home plate, they score a run. Each runner must touch all the bases with some part of their body, and must return to home plate before the batter can start a new round of batting.
A player on the defensive team (“catcher”) sits behind the batter, waiting to catch any balls that don’t make it over the plate. They also use signals to tell the pitcher where to throw the ball. In some cases, the catcher will shake his head to signal that he disagrees with what the pitcher is telling him, while in other cases he’ll nod his head to indicate that he agrees.
There are three pitches in baseball: a fastball, a curveball and a changeup. Each one travels at a different speed and is intended to confuse the batter’s sense of timing. A hitter can hit the ball for as many times as they want, but if they’re unsuccessful in hitting it with enough force to get past all of the defensive players before getting tagged out, they’ll be declared “out.”
The first team to win a division is crowned champion of that league; if there are two tied for that title or for a wild card spot in the playoffs, a one-game playoff will be held (the venue for which is decided by tossing a coin) to determine the winner.
Anyone whose presuppositions about life are that they can control events, that bad outcomes prove bad decisions and that past results govern future performance will never understand the game of baseball. Despite its enormous popularity, it is also the most unpredictable of all sports and can be one of the most harrowing to watch. Even so, its resiliency has been astonishing. It has survived wars, financial crises and social upheaval, and is now the most popular sport in the world. Those who truly love the game can find a wealth of entertainment in its goofiness, bat flips and brawls, and a sense of random chance that yields hilarity in abundance.