Baseball : History, Game Rules, Tournaments, gloves

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding, Here’s baseball history.

Baseball : History, Game Rules, Tournaments, gloves

The game is in play when a player on the fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a ball that a player on the batting team tries to hit with a bat.

The objective of the defensive team (referred to as the fielding team) is to prevent batters from becoming runners, and to prevent runners’ advance around the bases.

A run is scored when a runner legally advances around the bases in order and touches home plate (the place where the player started as a batter).

Baseball history 

The history of baseball in the United States dates to the 18th century, when boys and amateur enthusiasts played a baseball-like game by their own informal rules using homemade equipment.

The popularity of the sport grew and amateur men’s ball clubs were formed in the 1830–50s.

Semi-professional baseball clubs followed in the 1860s, and the first professional leagues arrived in the post-American Civil War 1870s.

The earliest known mention of baseball in the US is either a 1786 diary entry by a Princeton University student who describes playing “basked ball,” or a 1791 Pittsfield, Massachusetts, ordinance that barred the playing of baseball within 80 yards (73 m) of the town meeting house and its glass windows.

Another early reference reports that base ball was regularly played on Saturdays in 1823 on the outskirts of New York City in an area that today is Greenwich Village.The Olympic Base Ball Club of Philadelphia was organized in 1833.

Baseball game rules

Each batter has three chances to hit a ball that’s pitched to them.

If they swing and miss, or they don’t swing on a pitch that’s ruled fair by the umpire, it’s called a strike. After three strikes, the team receives an “out.”

There are lines drawn on the field that connect the bases. The lines leading from home plate to first base, and from home plate to third base are used to determine whether a ball is in play.

If the ball is hit between the base lines, it’s in play. If a ball is hit outside of the base lines, it’s called a foul.

And If a pitcher throws an unfair pitch, it’s called a ball. If the pitcher throws four balls, then the batter is allowed to walk to first base.

Tournaments 

Let us now discuss some of the major tournaments held in baseball −

• World Series

This popular annual championship is also called Fall Classic where champions of American League and National League, the two popular professional baseball leagues of North America, compete for the title.

• Caribbean Series

Cuba, Dominion Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela, the prominent Latin American countries participating in Baseball leagues, compete in the Series every year. The countries take turns to host the series, usually held every year in February.

• World Baseball Classic

This Championship is approved by World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), the international regulating body of baseball, where the winner of this Championship earns the title ‘World champion’.

• Baseball World Cup

World Cup tournaments have been organised since 1938, but they were not regular.

Even though professional players participating in league matches were allowed to participate in World Cup matches after 1996, not many league players preferred to participate in them.

Gloves 

A baseball glove or mitt is a large glove (traditionally made of leather, today other options do exist) worn by baseball players of the defending team, which assists players in catching and fielding balls hit by a batter or thrown by a teammate.

By convention, the glove is described by the handedness of the intended wearer, rather than the hand on which the glove is worn: a glove that fits on the left hand—used by a right-handed thrower—is called a right-handed (RH) or “right-hand throw” (RHT) glove.

Conversely, a left-handed glove (LH or LHT) is worn on the right hand, allowing the player to throw the ball with the left hand.