Baseball, softball, cricket, rounders. All these team games, as well as the less common oina and pesapallo, are united in the first place by their main sports "weapon". It is called the "bat", and its main purpose is to hit the ball with a strong and accurate shot. The first mentions of the bat and the ball date back to the XIV century, and six centuries later, some of them even ended up in the Summer Olympics program.
Baseball
Great Britain and France are claiming the right to name the most popular game in the world, in which strikes on the ball are applied with a bat, to some extent "their own". In particular, in Foggy Albion, they are sure that baseball, which actually appeared in the United States, is a distant relative of the ancient British and Irish rounders. The French refer to the painting of 1344. It depicts some priests playing la soule, a game very similar to modern baseball.
The main goal of the competition with the participation of two teams, each of which has 9 or 10 people, is to score more runs / points than the opponent. A point is awarded if a player of the attacking team runs through all the "bases" located in the corners of the square. Actually, the name of baseball (in English it is written as baseball), comes from the words base - "base, base" and ball - "ball". And in Russia, he became very popular thanks to baseball caps.
It is known that baseball is now played in more than 120 countries around the world. But he received the greatest popularity in the United States, as well as in Cuba, Venezuela, China, Japan and South Korea. Since 1938, the world championships have been held for men, and since 2004, among women. From 1986 to 2005, this sport was included in the official program of the Olympic Games.
Softball
By analogy with football and futsal, baseball also has a "little brother" - softball. They play it not only in open, but also in closed areas, but of a smaller size. By the way, women's softball, which was born in 1887, was also in the Olympic program. But after the 2008 Games, he was also expelled from it due to insufficient, according to the International Olympic Committee, popularity in the world.
Cricket
This is another native of England, who was born in one of the most sporting powers in the world in the 16th century and quickly became, along with football, a national sport. Two teams, each of which, like in football, includes 11 people, take turns hitting the ball in the field, trying to score the maximum possible number of points and not allow the opponent to take possession of it. There are two main roles: the ball serving bowler and the batsman trying to parry it with the bat.
Lapta
The first mentions of the old Russian game, reminiscent of modern baseball, date back to the XIV century. Evidence of its existence was found during excavations in Novgorod. As in the British counterparts, a team whose players are excellent at wielding a shock bat, have a high running speed and resourcefulness gains an advantage in rounders. Each successful run is worth a point. Whoever had more of them in the end won.
Historians also argue that rounders were actively used in the Russian army of different historical periods - under Peter the Great and Vladimir Lenin. Modern sports rounders are widespread only in some regions of Russia, not being popular outside our country. However, the same fate is with two more almost similar sports - the Romanian oina and the Finnish pesapallo.
