Know the rules of baseball

Baseball is one of the most popular sports in the United States, South Korea, and various regions of Latin America, Italy, and the Netherlands. However, in Spain and other parts of the world, it still has very little implementation, so it is good to define what baseball is and what the rules of the game are.

To play baseball you need 2 teams of 9 players each. The general objective is to hit the ball, sending it as far as possible to get more runs than the opposing team. In this case, a run is when the batter runs fast and touches all 4 bases while the opposing team tries to recover the ball. Thus, a baseball game is made up of 9 innings, that is, 9 batting turns. A team is said to be playing offense when it is their turn to bat and defense when it is their turn to throw the ball.

Now that we have explained in general terms what baseball is, we can see that this sport has a certain level of complexity, so it is good to delve into how it is played. In this sense, we want to point out some of the summarized rules of baseball:

1. As a general rule, the away team starts playing offense , while the home team must play the first inning on defense.

2. The batter who accumulates 3 strikes in his time at bat is automatically out of the game, which is known as ” out “, so he must return to the bench and be replaced by another player from the team. A failed attempt to hit the ball with the bat is called a strike. If three offensive baseball players are out, then the team must assume their turn is over and go on defense , making it the opposing team’s turn to bat.

3. If the ball lands in the foul zone, the batter’s play is counted as a strike the first two times, while the following are considered invalid. For this reason, players must accurately know the baseball pitch.

4. One of the rules of baseball, for the offensive player, is that if he tries to move towards a base, but a defensive player has the ball and touches that base , the one who comes running is out. Similarly, if he is not on one of the bases and a defensive player touches him with the ball, he is also out.

5. A common way to put a batter out is when a defensive player catches the ball in the air after it has been hit by the offensive player.

6. In the event that the batting is so forceful that the ball goes over the fence and out of the field, in the zone called fair, then a home run must be declared , which means that the team scores a complete run.

7. Another rule of baseball is that when the pitcher has established his position, the batter must not leave the batter’s box, unless the umpire calls a timeout .

8. If the ball lands in the fair zone when batted, the baseball batter must drop the bat and run to try to reach first base. For their part, defensive players have to quickly pick up the ball and try to tag the runner with it, also, they can step on the base while they have the ball in their possession. Also, the defensive player who collects the ball can pass it to a teammate who is closer to the base in question. In these cases, the runner who has batted is out.

9. The batting order that has been previously established by the team coach before the game must be respected. This is why in baseball games there is direct communication between the manager and the umpiring team.

10. No two team runners may be on the same bag. If a teammate comes running from the previous base to where a teammate is, the one who arrived first must move to the next base.

It is good to point out at this point that these rules are approved by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), which is the most important international institution, so that the rules of the game are the same in the Caribbean Series, in the World Cup Baseball and any other official competition.

brief history of baseball

Most experts agree that the history of baseball is more of an evolution, as it is considered the modern form of another team sport called stoolball, created in England during the 15th century. It is considered that it was invented by the women who work milking the cows, since after the day they used the stools to make the “base” and the “home”.

It is very likely that the stoolball is the origin of baseball, since there was a pitcher who tried to hit the stool with the ball to leave the batter “out” and in turn, the batter had to prevent the hit to the stool by hitting the ball and run quickly to the other stool to touch it with the stick. Afterwards, he had to return to home plate before he was tagged with the ball. However, it was a very rudimentary game, lacking the sophisticated baseball bats and balls of today.

Baseball was brought to the United States by English settlers in the late 18th century. However, it was not until 1842 that New York firefighter Alexander Cartwright founded the New York Knickerbockers club. From this team came the first known baseball rulebook.

For example, although the strike in current baseball is the negative count to a batter, at that time the batter was called a striker, so the word strike designated the turn at bat. Although the rules were a little different from the current ones, we can say that the New York Knickerbockers laid the foundation for the basic rules of baseball that we know today.

To conclude, it is good to mention that in many countries there are baseball schools for children, because it is considered a very beneficial activity for the development of different capacities, such as motor skills , balance, reaction capacity, muscle strength, among others.. In addition, there are alternative games such as roundabout or foot baseball, which are just as fun.