Baseball is very popular in the United States, Japan, and even Venezuela, China, and South Korea. However, in Russia, this game sport is not well covered, despite the fact that popular culture is gradually fueling interest in it.
The USA is traditionally considered to be the country-pioneer of baseball. It is generally accepted that modern baseball is played by the rules developed by New Yorker Alexander Cartwright in 1845.
General rules
Like any game, baseball starts with the participants. There are two teams of 9 (sometimes 10) players who take turns playing offense and defense. The task of the defending side is to prevent the attackers from earning points by running through all four bases of the playing field and returning to their "home".
The playing field is divided into two parts: "infield" - the inner part, which is a square with a side of 27 m 45 cm, at the corners of which the bases are located, "outfield" - the part of the field between the square and the fence. In the center of the square is the so-called pitcher's slide, and the first base is considered the "home".
The player from the defending team, the "pitcher" (from the English pitch - serve), throws a baseball towards the "home", where there is a "batter" - a batter from the attacking team. After the batter has hit the ball, he begins to run towards second base, and the players of the defending team must catch the hit back and take the running player out of the game with the help of it, into touch. There are several ways to do this:
- force-out: the defensive player with the ball entered the base before the runner reached it;
- ground-out: a variant of force-out - the defensive player threw the ball to another player standing on the base before the runner reached it;
- fly-out: the ball, which was bounced but did not touch the ground, was caught by the defending player;
- tag out: a member of the defending team touched the ball of the runner when he was between the bases;
- also a player goes out-of-bounds if he was unable to hit the ball three times in a row - this is called a strike-out.
Victory conditions
A point, or "run" (from the English. Run - to run), is awarded to the attacking team if the player was able to go through all the bases. The so-called home run is achieved if the batter was able to hit the ball, and he flew out of bounds, but flew between special penalty masts. This blow allows the batter and all the runners to score a point.
The team that scored the most points in 9 periods, or innings, of the match wins. Every time three players of the attacking team went out, the teams change places. Thus, each inning consists of 6 outs. If the number of points of the teams is the same, an additional inning is assigned.
Baseball rules help to develop a wide variety of strategies for the game, which makes it an interesting leisure time for people of all walks and ages.
