The game of baseball is one of the most iconic in sports, capturing the imagination and inspiring patriotic fervor. Legend has it that it was invented by a Civil War general named Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York in 1839. In fact, the sport was heavily revised by amateur men’s club teams in and around New York City in the middle of the 19th century to become the game we know and love today.
In a baseball game, players on the field play defense while a player from each team bats. The aim of the batting team is to score runs by touching all four bases. The defensive team must prevent the batting team from getting to home plate by recording three outs (catching a fly ball, throwing the batter out before he gets to first base or tagging a runner while holding the ball) before the batting team can get all the way around the bases. A game is usually played for nine innings, and the team with more points wins.
Before a game begins, the batting team chooses its order, which is called a lineup. Each player in the lineup takes turns hitting, with each player following the order of the player who preceded him in the lineup. Once a lineup is chosen, it cannot be changed. Substitutes are allowed, but the replacement must bat in the same spot as the original player.
During the course of a game, each team plays 162 regular-season games. The teams are divided into Eastern, Central and Western divisions, with the winners of each division advancing to the postseason. The winner of the postseason is declared a league champion, or pennant winner.
The ball used in baseball is a leather sphere with 108 hand-stitched stitches. The outer layer is made of horsehide that is dyed and stitched together, while the inner core consists of rubber that is molded into a spherical shape. The core is then wrapped in yarn windings — first 121 yards of rough gray wool, followed by forty-five yards of white wool, and finally 150 yards of fine cotton — each layer being progressively thicker than the last. The yarn windings are then covered with a thin layer of rubber cement, and the whole is coated in a protective shell.
The field of play is separated into two areas: the infield and the outfield. The infield includes the pitcher’s mound, home plate, first base, second base and third base. The outfield consists of the left field, center field and right field. The distance between each of the bases is 90 feet. The hitter’s home plate is at the front of the infield, while first base is at the back of it. The outfield is a diamond-shaped area that surrounds the infield. When a hitter hits the ball, it may travel to any of the outfield bases if the batter makes it safely there. A hit that travels to first base is a single, while one that goes to both second and third is a double. A hit that travels to all four bases is a triple.