Take Me Out To The Ball Park. Review on Baseball

Baseball is lovingly know as America's national pastime. Every spring and every summer, millions of people will watch these professional games both in the ball parks and at home. There are also professional minor leagues (these are a players training grounds to the majors), thousands of college and high school teams, and many other little league and other such amateur teams.

Baseball started in the United States during the mid-1800's. The amazing popularity of the game today owes much to its tradition. Many of baseballs avid followers will spend hours recalling each traumatic moment and great achievements of the past. They will recount everything to you from the home run record of The Babe straight through to the new record just recently set by Bonds an everyone who came in between.

As baseball became the national pastime of the United States, it also spread to other countries. Today the sport is also popular in Latin America, Japan, Canada, and many other places.

But, for one to really enjoy the sport, one must also understand how it is played. So, lets spend some time looking in that very thing.

How The Game Of Baseball is Played:

There have been very few changes in the basic rules over the past one-hundred years. The game is played with two teams of nine players each. During the course of the game, the two teams alternate between batting (which is the offensive play) and fielding (which is the defensive) play. What you will need to play the game is:

A bat

Padded gloves

What is The Object Of The Game:

The object of the game is to score more runs than the team that you are playing against does. A run is scored when the batter hits the ball with the bat and then safely runs around each of the four bases. They will, of course, start at home plate and then end there as well. The fielders job is to prevent that from happening.

A baseball field will have tow main sections: The infield and the outfield. The infield is many times called the diamond because that is the shape that the four bases make. These bases are called: Home plate, first base, second base, and third base. The outfield will then extend to the fence or the grandstand. This is the area that encloses the entire field. The sections will both contain fair territory and foul territory.

Until recently the bats could only be made of wood. Today, however, aluminum bats are permitted in most leagues except the minors and the majors where wood is still required. The bat must be no more than 2 1/2 inches in diameter at its thickest point and no more than 42 inches long.

Players and Their Possitions

Each one of the nine players on the playing field will occupy a specific position. They will all work together to prevent the opposing team from ever getting on base or scoring runs.

The main defensive player on a team would be the pitcher. His is the one who will be throwing the ball to the batter. His job is to try and prevent the batter from ever hitting the ball.

Some of the types of pitches that they may want to use to accomplish this are:

The overarm or side arm

The knuckle ball

The pitcher will also be responsible for fielding batted balls, keeping an eye on the base runners, (this is to make sure that runners do not advance) and covers first base or home plate when he needs to. The pitcher is thought to be the most important player on the team.

The next most important player on the team is though to be the catcher. He is the player that crouches in the box area behind home plate. His job is to catch the pitchers throws that the batter did no hit, to guard home plate against runners who are trying to score, and to field the batters balls that fall near home plate. The catcher and the pitcher must play closely together. The catcher will also signal what pitches should be thrown to the batter after he has studied them.

There are four other members of the defensive team which are called infielders. These players try to catch any balls that are hit by the batters into the infield. There positions are:

The first baseman

The third baseman

Finally, there are three players called outfielders who are trying to catch any balls which are hit over the infielders. These players are the:

Left fielder

Right fielder

The order at which the players bat once they turn from defense to offense is called the lineup. It will consist of the nine players who have positions in the field. These lineups are determined before the start of play. The only reason this would not hold true is if you had a designated hitter. This position was created in 1973 by the American League and was designed to have a batter come in for the pitcher who is normally not a good batter. This then makes a ten member team with the tenth player never taking his place on the field. If a pinch hitter were to come into the game, they would bat in the same order as the player that they were coming in to replace.

Now that you know a little bit about the game and the players that you will meet, I suggest that you take you family and head toward the ball park. We just love those family outing and there is just something about that seventh inning stretch.

AT THE OLD BALL GAME

I must admit that we go to far more college and minor league games than we do to the major leaguers. That is for cost reasons only and not an enjoyment factor.

See you at the game.

~Debbie~