BackingIn.com My thoughts about stuff…

Baseball 101

In less than a month, pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training.  It's time for baseball again.  Here in Florida, the idea of Spring Training is not difficult to fathom, but depending on where you live, there still may be snow on the field and bitter cold winds blowing.  None the less, in two days the New Orleans Saints will be walking off the field with the Vince Lombardi trophy (mark my words: 24 to 17), and then it's time to start thinking baseball.

I plan to write a number of baseball-related posts in the coming months.  Among  the topics will be steroids, the color barrier, and my favorite team, the Mets.  In this post, I want to have some fun, so I am going to attempt to explain the game of baseball in a single post.  Baseball is the most complicated sport.  If you doubt this fact then attempt this exercise.  Try explaining the game of soccer to somebody that knows nothing about the subject.  Then, try doing the same with baseball.

Soccer: a game played on an outdoor rectangular field with a goal at either end.  Two teams compete to kick a ball into the other team's goal.  The objective is to score more goals than the other team in the allotted time.  Players can kick the ball, but cannot touch it with their hands.  Only the goaltenders, one on each team, can defend his team's goal by using his hands.  Now, there are more rules and many nuances to Soccer, but with the above knowledge a person could watch a game of soccer and understand it.  Baseball is a whole 'nother story.

Years back I was in a new relationship with a woman who had recently moved to the United States from Eastern Europe.  She knew NOTHING about baseball.  When I tried to explain to her why I was yelling at a man named Piazza on TV to 'swing the damn bat!', I realized how daunting a task it is to explain baseball.  Even people who have no interest in sports understand the basics of baseball, if they grew up in America.  It's part of the culture.  You just pick it up through osmosis.  In grade school, your teacher gave you 'three strikes' to stop talking during class, and you 'hit a home run' when you received an 'A' on your geography quiz.  In retrospect, I believe my attempts at explaining baseball to my girlfriend was partly to blame for the failure of the relationship.  She thought I was crazy and just making this stuff up.  She would say to me in broken English.  “Do you think I’m fool?  How can a ball be out of play but be caught by other man and first man be out?!”  You no need to make up story to impress me.  Just be real with me.  Next think you’re going to tell me is that they play 162 games a year then have a 3 tiered playoff system.”   Ok, so maybe she never said any of that, but I’m sure she was thinking it.  Anyway, below I will attempt to explain the rules and game play of baseball in conversational style, off the top of my head...until I get tired and stop.  Then it will be the reader's chance to pick up where I left off and comment the rest of the rules.

Baseball 101

Baseball is an outdoor sport played on a diamond-shaped field.  Well, the inner part of the field, known as the 'infield' is in the shape of a diamond, but the outer part ('outfield') expands outward from two of the lines that make up the diamond (the baselines) to a (mostly) curved wall.  Two teams of 9 players compete to score more 'run's in 9 'innings'.

Scoring Runs

To score a run, a player from one team must touch (with any part of his body) each 'base' (1st, 2nd, 3rd, and home plate) in sequential order.  To get to the bases, the player must hit a ball that is thrown ('pitched') at him.  Before I get into that, let me explain that even though there are two teams, when a team is on defense ('fielding' or 'in the field') all nine players participate.  They are: the pitcher, the catcher, 1st baseman, 2nd baseman, third baseman, three outfielders, and a guy who stands between 2nd and 3rd bases called a 'shortstop'.  All nine of these guys are on the field trying to keep the 'batter', the player trying to hit the ball, from scoring.  When a team is on offense, only one player from that team is on the field at the beginning of the inning.  If all goes well during the inning, there may be as many as four players on the offensive team on the field.  Ok, so back to trying to score runs.  Let's talk about the 'at bat'.

At Bat

The Pitcher throws the baseball to his teammate, the catcher, who stands behind home plate.  The batter, the guy on the other team, stands next to  home plate, in front of the catcher, and tries to hit the ball.  If the pitcher throws the ball and it crosses over home plate and above the batters knees but below the number on his baseball jersey and the batter does not swing...that is a 'strike'.  If the batter gets three strikes then he is 'out'.  He has to leave the playing field and go back to the 'dugout' (a hole in the ground where the players who are not playing stay).  Each team gets three Outs  per inning.  Ok so, the batter can also get a strike by swinging at a pitched ball and missing.  And, a batter can get a strike by hitting the ball to an area outside the field of play ('out of play').  This is any area not within the baselines except for over the outfield wall.  If he hits it over the outfield wall, that's good.  That's a homerun...more on that later.  What was I talking about?  Oh yeah, foul balls.  The batter can swing and miss, not swing at a good pitch (a 'strike'), or hit the ball foul.  All of these are strikes, and if he get three, he's out.  I almost forgot.  If a batter has two strikes, he cannot get another strike by hitting the ball foul. That would be called 'fouling out' and it cannot happen...unless the batter is bunting.  A bunt is when a batter intentionally tries to tap at a pitched ball to hit it weakly making it difficult for the opposing team to 'field' the ball and 'throw out' a runner at another base.  Are you getting all of this?  See, it's not that difficult to understand.  Back to hitting...

If the batter (aka the 'hitter), hits the ball and a member of the fielding team catches the ball before it hits the ground then the hitter is out.  Go sit down.  If the batter hits the ball and it travels over the outfield wall, that is a home run.  The batter must touch each base and home plate in sequential order, and he scores a run.  The other team can't do squat when the hitter is running around the bases because the ball has been taken home by a fan and sold on Ebay.  Now, hitting a home run is only one way to score a run.  The next best way to score a run is the 'suicide squeeze'.  Just kidding...  So, if the batter hits the ball, it isn't caught, and it doesn't go over the wall, but it hits the ground the batter must run to 1st base.  If he get to the base before a fielder can pick up the ball and throw it to the 1st baseman then the batter is 'safe'.  Keep in mind that the 1st baseman must have at least 1 foot on the base when he catches the ball.  If both the ball and the runner (the batter is now a 'runner') reach the base at the same time, the runner is still safe.  The Runner can also be called out if a member of the fielding team tags him with the ball before he gets to first base.  Now if the runner (formerly the batter) reaches 1st base safely, he doesn't have to stay there.  He can run to 2nd base... Oh, snap!  I forgot to explain 'walking'.  If the pitcher throws the ball and the batter doesn't swing and the pitch is not a 'strike' (the ball goes over the plate and above the hitter's knees but below his uniform numbers) it is called a 'ball'. Now stick with me because this is confusing.  The baseball that is thrown is a 'ball', but a non-strike is also called a 'ball'.  If the pitcher throws 4 balls before he can get 3 strikes, the batter 'walks' (more like a trot) to first base.

Ok, I'm tired.  You finish it...  Don't forget to explain:

• Force out vs. tag out
• Stealing bases
• Advancing runners
• Home team bats last
• Why Major League Baseball supported cheating with steroids
• Sacrifice flies
• Tagging up
• The infield fly rule
• Balking
• Why Major League Baseball supported segregation
• Foul poles
• Defensive indifference
• The 7th Inning Stretch
• Morgana the Kissing Bandit
• How a team can be 1/2 a game behind another in the standings
• Extra innings
• Why Tim McCarver never shuts up and Joe Buck thinks he's funny
• Ground rule doubles
• Intentional walks
• Dropped 3rd strike
• Fielder’s choice
• Tasters choice
• Catching balls in foul territory
• Don Zimmer
• Youppi!