Baseball is America's national pastime and it is popular in many countries including Cuba, Japan, Mexico, Venezuela and many other countries in Central America. The American version of the game features a lot of big innings and has more of an emphasis on the home run than the game played in other parts of the world.
Field Dimensions
Baseball is played on a field called a diamond. There's a distance of 90 feet between home plate and first base and that's the distance between first and and second, second and third and third and home plate. The pitcher's mound is 60 feet 6 inches from home plate. The minimum distance between home plate and the outfield fence is 250 feet, but that rule is from another generation in baseball. The shortest fence in baseball is down the right field foul line at Fenway Park, where the fence is 302 feet from home plate.
Object of the Game
The object of the game is to score more runs that your opponent. American baseball games are divided into nine innings. The idea is to get as many hits and runs before the team in the field records three outs. When the team in the field records three outs, it comes into bat and the opponent goes into the field to play defense. When the home team is ahead after the visiting team has batted in the ninth inning, the game is over. The home team does not bat if it is ahead after 8 1/2 innings. If the home team is trailing or tied going into the bottom of the ninth, it bats in the bottom of the ninth. If the two teams are tied after nine innings, the teams play extra innings until one team is ahead after both teams have batted.
Number of Players and Positions
Each team uses nine men in the field to play defense. The positions are pitcher, catcher, first base, second base, shortstop, third base, left field, center field and right field. All of those players bat in the National League in a batting order determined by the manager. In the American League, the team may use a designated hitter to bat for the pitcher. Players on the bench can replace players in the starting lineup at any time. However, once a player comes out of the game, he cannot re-enter.
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