Baseball has a rich history and, though there have been changes, the game has remained essentially the same for more than 100 years. According to the official rules of Major League Baseball, baseball is a game between two teams of nine players each, under direction of a manager, played on an enclosed field in accordance with these rules, under jurisdiction of one or more umpires. Teams win by scoring more runs than their opponent.
Game Play
The two teams playing against each other take turns hitting and fielding. The primary pieces of baseball equipment include the ball, the bat for hitting and the glove for fielding. Unlike many sports that use timed periods to determine the length of a game, baseball uses untimed innings; an inning ends when each team records three outs. Traditionally, the visiting team bats in the first half, or top, of the inning,and the home team bats in the bottom of the inning. There are nine innings in a baseball game, unless the score is tied after nine innings. In that case, the teams continue play until one team has more runs at the end of a complete inning.
Batting
Before the start of a game, the manager creates a lineup to indicate where each of his nine starting players will play in the field and the order in which they will bat. According to the Baseball Almanac, batters must bat in the order in which they appear on the lineup. Each batter faces the opposing pitcher of the fielding team, standing in the batter's box surrounding home plate. Batters reach base in one of several ways: if they hit the ball and run to a base before the fielders can field the ball and deliver it to the base; if the pitcher throws four balls outside the strike zone; if a fielder misplays a ball; or if the batter is hit by a pitch.
Scoring
The batting team's main objective is to score runs. A batter scores a run by going all the way around the bases to home plate before there are three outs. The batter can hit a bome run, scoring immediately, or he can become a baserunner and move from base to base depending on what batters after him do.
Pitching
The player who delivers the baseball to the opposing batter is called a pitcher. The pitcher's job is to limit baserunners and ultimately to put batters out. A batter has a strike zone, which according to the Baseball Almanac is "that area over home plate the upper limit of which is a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and the lower level is a line at the hollow beneath the knee cap. The Strike Zone shall be determined from the batter's stance as the batter is prepared to swing at a pitched ball." If the pitcher delivers a pitch in the strike zone and the batter either does not swing or swings and misses, it is a strike. If the pitcher delivers a pitch outside the strike zone and the batter does not swing, it is a ball. The batter can strike out on three strikes or walk on four balls. If the batter hits the ball, he still can be out if the fielding team catches the ball on the fly or gets the ball to the base before the batter.
Fielding
When the opposing team is batting, the nine fielders try to get the batter out. The nine fielding positions are pitcher, catcher, first base, second base, shortstop, third base, left fielder, center fielder, and right fielder. The priority for a fielder is to limit scoring by putting batters out. According to sportales, a batter is out if he hits a ball fair and it touches him before he reaches first base, if he strikes out, if the batted ball is caught by a fielder before it reaches the ground and if a batted ball hit on the ground in fair territory is delivered to the base before the batter reaches it.
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