A baseball survival guide.
- Chris Atkins
- Oct 13, 2019
- 4 min read
Baseball is a complex game. Over the years (around 150 now!), rules have been accumulated, removed, amended, with some of them being downright confusing for the uninitiated. A lot of people have a faint idea of how it all works, but I have decided to give you the bare minimum knowledge required to follow, and understand, a ballgame.
1) "Take me out to the ball game": the national pastime
Baseball is played between two teams of nine players. Games are divided into nine innings, which are themselves divided into half-innings. During the top of the inning, the visiting team bats while the home team fields. When three outs have been made (more on that below), we proceed to the bottom of the inning and teams can switch sides (the batting team fields, and the fielding team bats).
Both teams' goal is to score the most points, called runs, by advancing around 1st, 2nd and 3rd bases and returning to home plate safely. In case of a tie by the bottom of the 9th, extra-innings can be added until one team comes on top. Baseball is quite a unique sport in that it isn't limited in time, most games last anywhere from 2 to 3 hours. Extra-innings usually extend game time, and the longest game ever recorded lasted a jaw-dropping 8 hours and 25 minutes.
Baseball is played on a field; people sometimes refer to it as “diamond” due to its shape. We usually divide pitches into two parts separated by the grass line: the infield and the outfield. Most of the action happens in the infield and, at its center, you’ll find the pitcher’s mound. As a rule, the mound has to be 60 feet 6 inches (or 18.44 m) away from home plate.
As I said earlier, the fielding team is composed of nine players, they are:
- The pitcher (1, P)
- The catcher (2, C)
- The 1st baseman (3, 1B)
- The 2nd baseman (4, 2B)
- The 3rd baseman (5, 3B)
- The shortstop (6, SS)
- The left-fielder (7, LF)
- The center-fielder (8, CF)
- The right-fielder (9, RF)
Each position requires varying levels of athleticism, it is commonly accepted that being catcher is the most physically demanding position (just imagine having to crouch for 2 hours), while shortstops usually are the most athletic guys on the team.
2) The core of the game, pitchers versus batters
This is where everything starts, the duel between the batter and the pitcher. Because this duel has two sides, we'll take a look at each, in order to explain what both are trying to do, as well as how:
- The pitcher: pitchers nowadays have almost reached the limit of human performance. It is not uncommon to see ball pitched (pitch = the act of throwing the ball) around the 100 mph (c. 160 kph) mark in the major leagues. Some of the biggest names of active players that you could hear include Max Scherzer, Justin Verlander or Clayton Kershaw. Their goal is to record outs. So how is this done?
Each batter has a zone, called strike zone, through which the pitch must pass to be called a strike. Throw outside the strike zone without making the batter swing, and the pitch is called a ball (if the batter swings and misses what would have been called a ball, it counts as a strike).
As you've all heard before "3 strikes and you're out!" however, throw 4 balls, and the batter gets a freebie and is allowed to take 1st base safely, this is called a walk. Whether you strikeout, walk, reach base on a hit or are called out on base, the count resets for each new batter.
There exists many different types of pitches: 4 or 2 seam fastballs, curveballs, sliders etc... we will discuss those in a separate post. However, you should know that it is also the catcher's job to give the pitcher signals to throw a certain pitch through signals. Catchers can get pitchers to, for example, get the pitcher to throw outside the zone on purpose to get the batter to chase and hopefully fool him into striking-out.
- The batter: getting on base is the primary goal for a batter. This will keep the inning alive and potentially allow the next batters to "bring you home" to score a run. Some baseball players have become so legendary that even people who do not know the first thing about baseball still know their names: Lou Gehrig, Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson and of course, the one and only, Babe Ruth. The Bambino is an untouchable god in the world of baseball, and most people know him as the Yankee superstar batter of the 20's, but few people know he started out as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.
Back to our topic, how do batters reach base safely?
- By hitting a ball in fair territory that isn't caught by a fielder before it hits the ground
- If you hit a ball that touches the ground and is caught by a fielder (mostly in the infield), the fielder has to then throw the ball to 1st. If you reach first base before the ball, you are deemed safe:
- You walk
Once you reach base safely, you become a base runner. The next batter up will try and reach base safely himself, but his priority is to advance the base runner to 2B, or even 3B by hitting a ball in fair territory, or potentially bringing you home by hitting a home run.
On the other hand, there are also multiples ways to make outs (remember, the inning can go on as long as the defending side hasn't been able to make three outs).
- You strike out, of course
- A ball you hit is caught by a fielder before it touches the ground (these are called flyout, lineout, popout etc...)
- You can't outrun the throw to 1st base after hitting in fair territory:
So there you go. This was very succint, and this will only get you so far, but you will be able to follow whatever is happening on the field. Please ask any question if you are unclear on some of the stuff I have mentioned. If you want any further reading, I have added several links after this that you might find interesting. See you later! - Chris
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