349 words, ...hours
How is baseball played?
In a baseball game, two teams are playing offense and defense respectively. Each team will have nine innings (similar to rounds of game). No time limit is imposed. In every inning, the offense team will try to score runs (i.e. points) while the defense will, of course, try everything to out the offense players and prevent them from scoring any points. Home team always bats second, which is called the “bottom” of the inning (instead of the “top” of the inning).
In each inning the batting team (offense) sends one player (a hitter or a batter), to bat. These hitters take turns at bat until three of them are out, and that’s when they switch teams. The pitching team (defense) have all nine players on the field.
The engine of the sport is driven by the pitcher and the batter. All of thrill in a baseball game revolves around the two combatants. To set the game in motion, the pitcher attempts to: 1) either throw the ball past the batter directly into the catcher’s glove, or 2) make the batter swing and hit the ball to put it in play. If the ball is hit (ball put in play), the eight fielders try to catch it or throw out the batter so he can’t get on base and ultimately score a run. On one hand, all the batter is up to is to hit and put the ball in play so that the eight fielders can’t catch the ball or throw it to another fielder to do an out. The 8 fielders, on the other hand, will do all they can to throw out the batter in many ways.
The concept “out” is essential to understand the game. An out is recorded when a fielder catches a ball, tags a base runner with a ball, or grabs the ball and steps on the base a runner is trying to reach before the runner reaches it. Outs are also recorded when a hitter strikes out (miss a hittable ball 3 times) Once three outs are recorded, a half-inning is finished.
