Baseball 101, For Those That Don't SportsBall (Or Whatever) -- Part 1: The Basics
So, because I don't have a Tumblr and don't feel like setting one up, here is a cheat sheat guide for baseball. Additional parts to this series will be posted as I have time/feel like it/get requests from people.
This is intended as a basic resource for those that need/want specific information about the game of baseball as it is played in the United States. I don't pretend to be an expert on this subject, nor am I proposing to cover the subject in its entirety. I will add further posts, and links to supplementary information as I can. If you find something that is inaccurate here, please let me know and I will correct it ASAP.
Part 1: The Basics
League and Division Breakdowns:
In the United States (and Canada) the governing body for professional baseball is MLB, which is short for Major League Baseball.
There are two leagues in MLB, the National League and the American League, and the game is played differently in each league. The main difference between the two leagues is the presence of the Designated Hitter in the American League (to be explained further in the section covering Offence), which does not exist in the National League. Interleague Play is where teams from each league play each other. When this happens, the rules for whichever team is the home team are the ones governing play for that game. (see the section on Interleague Play)
Each League has three divisions: the East, or Eastern Division; the Central Division; and the West or Western Division. Each Division consists of 5 teams each, for a total of 30 MLB teams, 15 in the NL, 15 in the AL.
American League Teams:
East: Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles
Central: Cleveland Indians, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Royals
West: Houston Astros, Seattle Mariners, Oakland Athletics (nearly always referred to as the Oakland A's or just the A's), Los Angeles Angels (usually referred to as the LA Angels), Texas Rangers
National League Teams:
East: Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves, Washington Nationals, New York Mets, Miami Marlins
Central: Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds
West: Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres
The Playing Field:
The Infield consists of the Base Paths and Bases (collectively referred to as the baseball diamond), the On Deck Circles, the Batters Boxes, the Coaching Boxes, the Pitchers Mound, and part of Foul Territory, it is borderd by the Hitter's Backdrop/Backstop and the Home Team's and Visitor's Dugouts.
The Bases: Home Plate (rarely referred to as Home Base), First Base, Second Base, Third Base. When a player is in contact with a base he is Safe and cannot be tagged out.
Fair/Foul Territory:
Foul Territory: If a ball lands on the ground in foul territory then it is out of play and the ball is dead. Likewise, if a ball rolls foul before it crosses either First or Third Base, it is foul and the play is dead. Like in Tennis, all parts of the First Base and Third Base Lines (including the Foul Poles) are considered in fair territory and the ball is still in play. However: if a player catches a pop-up in foul territory before the ball hits the ground it is considered a pop-out and the batter is Out.
Officials: The officials in baseball are Umpires, sometimes (but rarely) called Umps. There are four on the field at all times, one at each base. The Home Plate Umpire is in charge of calling Balls and Strikes and in general is the official running the show. First, Second, and Third Base Umpires determine if a runner is Safe or Out on a play and if the runner stayed in the base path when running the bases (if he didn't, he's then called out). First and Third Base Umpires also determine if a hit ball is Fair or Foul (thus out of play), and are appealed to by the Catcher and/or Home Plate Umpire to decide if a Batter has Gone Around On (Swung At) a pitch (which would be a strike if he did).
MLB has instituted the Replay Review, in which a team can challenge certain calls by Umpires on the field (safe/out at First Base, e.g.). When this occurs, there is a separate team of Umpires in New York, at the MLB Replay Command Center, which review the video of the play from many angles and often frame-by-frame to determine if the call on the field was correct or should be overturned. Only if there is definitive evidence that the call on the field was incorrect will it be overturned.
Ground Rules:
Ground Rules are the rules of play in a specific ballpark that cover all the weird crap that might happen because of the geography of that particular park. (Beyond some very basic rules covering things like the distance between bases, baseball fields are not standardized like American Football fields, so there are many variations in ballparks.) The Home Team determines the Ground Rules of their particular park, which are public knowledge and available to anyone. Any changes in a ballpark's Ground Rules during a season must be approved by The Comissioner's Office (this rarely happens).
The Basics of Play:
Nine defensive players are on the field at a time: the Pitcher, the Catcher, the First Baseman, the Second Baseman, the Shortstop, the Third Baseman, the Right Fielder, the Center Fielder, and the Left Fielder.
One offensive player at a time comes to Bat, by taking his place in the either the righthanded or lefthanded batter's box. Players that can hit both right- and left-handed are called Switch Hitters.
The Home Team plays defence first, making the Visiting Team the ones to bat in the first half of an inning (also called the Top of an inning). Baseball is unique in sport, in that the Defense is in control of the ball for the majority of the time it is in play, as opposed to most other sports, like basketball, where the reverse is true.
The game officially starts when the First Pitch is thrown by the Starting Pitcher (always called First Pitch, never first throw).
The pitcher must stand on the Pitcher's Mound to pitch, and his back foot must be in contact with the Rubber Slab that is imbedded in the mound.
The distance between the rubber slab and the rear point of home plate is fixed at 60 feet 6 inches.
The distance between each base is 90 feet, thus the infield forms a perfect square that is 90 feet on each side.
The infield, specifically the pitcher's mound and the basepaths, is always made of clay dirt. Sometimes there is grass inside the basepaths and surrounding the pitcher's mound, but not always.
The Outfield is always grass (with the exception of the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays, which use artificial turf in thier ballparks) usually edged by about 15 feet of dirt Warning Track between the edge of the outfield grass and the Outfield Fence.
The object, for the pitcher, is to get the batters out. Each half inning is over when there are three outs.
A player is out when he
1: Strikes Out (either looking or swinging), three strikes equals one out.
2: puts the ball in play and it is caught by a defender before it hits the ground, a Fly-Out or a Line-Out (as in, "he flied out to the left fielder" or "he lined out to the shortstop").
3: Hits the ball on the ground but it is fielded by a defenseman and relayed to the First Baseman and the First Baseman touches First Base before the runner does, a Force Out (at First Base).
4: is tagged out while running and not touching a base (where he would be Safe, unable to be tagged/forced out),
5: is a runner on the basepaths and is forced out by the defenseman at the base to which he would have advanced.
The Home Team comes up to bat in the second half, or bottom, of an Inning. When both teams have each had a chance to bat, that is one complete inning over.
The object of the game is to score more Runs than the opposing team. A Run is scored when a player rounds all three bases and safely crosses Home Plate.
There are Nine Innings in a regulation game of Baseball.
There are never any ties in a baseball game. If the game is tied at the end of nine innings then the game continues into Extra Innings until the tie is broken and both teams have played the same number of innings. For example, if the Visiting team scores a Run in the top of the eleventh inning, the game continues until the Home team has a chance to bat in the bottom of that inning, giving them a chance to play offense the same number of innings as the Visiting team. If the Home team proceeds to tie the game, but not to go ahead, the game continues on in the same way until the tie no longer exists. This has led to some brutally long games at times, sometimes 20 or more innings, which is more than twice the length of a normal baseball game.
Baseball cannot be played in the rain. There are often rain delays, and sometimes a game has to be rescheduled due to a rain out. There are other weather-related circumstances which cause a game to be ended early or rescheduled, sometimes depending on the location.
The Designated Hitter:
I have great personal distaste for the designated hitter, so I'll just let the MLB site say it for me:
Established via a 1973 rule, the designated hitter -- or "DH" -- is a player who bats in place of the pitcher. The pitcher still handles his regular duties when his team is on defense, so the designated hitter does not play in the field.
Only the American League uses the designated hitter. Pitchers must bat in National League games and Interleague games in which the NL team is the designated home team.
Clubs utilize the DH position in several ways, with some employing a full-time DH and others using it as a means to provide one of their other regular players with a partial day of rest. The position can also be beneficial to aging or injury-prone players who are no longer capable of playing defense on a regular basis but can still offer value at the plate.
Interleague Play:
As noted above, when teams from different leagues play each other the rules for the home team's league preside. The scheduling of interleague games is quite complicated, as is the history of Interleague Play. I refer any interested parties to this Wikipedia Article. For Interleague games with teams that are not considered Natural Rivals (e.g. the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A's), they only play each other once every three years. So, for example, the Seattle Mariners would only play the Chicago Cubs once every three years.
Scheduling:
The schedule for all teams is set by MLB. Teams may request that certain times of year they be scheduled for away games for reasons such as historically adverse weather conditions (e.g. the San Francisco Giants regularly open the season away from home because of the high probability of rain in SF at the start of April), but MLB is under no obligation to honor those requests.
The baseball season officially starts on Opening Day, which is traditionally April 1, but in 2018 was March 29, due to the addition of four extra off days for all teams to the schedule after the new collective bargaining agreement was completed in 2016.
Baseball teams play a series of either 3 or 4 games in a row against another team (except interleague play, which is usually two games at one team's ballpark and two at the other's). The first two games of a series are usually evening/night games followed by a day game on the third day to allow the visiting team (or both teams, if the home team's homestand is ending) time to travel to the next city that same day, after the game is over.
Okay, that's it. I'm tired now.
If you want to dive in-depth into the guts of the game (or you want a really, really dry read), you can check out the MLB 2018 Official Baseball Rules. Good luck.
If you want to deep-dive into the history of baseball, I highly recommend Ken Burns' epic nine-part documentary Baseball, its follow-up The Tenth Inning, and his Jackie Robinson documentary, all from PBS. I don't know if they are available in the UK, unfortunately. Maybe through the BBC or something? I know PBS partners with the BBC to bring British film and television to the US, so maybe it's a reciprocal thing when we have something good enough that the UK is actually interested.
This is intended as a basic resource for those that need/want specific information about the game of baseball as it is played in the United States. I don't pretend to be an expert on this subject, nor am I proposing to cover the subject in its entirety. I will add further posts, and links to supplementary information as I can. If you find something that is inaccurate here, please let me know and I will correct it ASAP.
Part 1: The Basics
League and Division Breakdowns:
In the United States (and Canada) the governing body for professional baseball is MLB, which is short for Major League Baseball.
There are two leagues in MLB, the National League and the American League, and the game is played differently in each league. The main difference between the two leagues is the presence of the Designated Hitter in the American League (to be explained further in the section covering Offence), which does not exist in the National League. Interleague Play is where teams from each league play each other. When this happens, the rules for whichever team is the home team are the ones governing play for that game. (see the section on Interleague Play)
Each League has three divisions: the East, or Eastern Division; the Central Division; and the West or Western Division. Each Division consists of 5 teams each, for a total of 30 MLB teams, 15 in the NL, 15 in the AL.
American League Teams:
East: Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays, Baltimore Orioles
Central: Cleveland Indians, Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, Chicago White Sox, Kansas City Royals
West: Houston Astros, Seattle Mariners, Oakland Athletics (nearly always referred to as the Oakland A's or just the A's), Los Angeles Angels (usually referred to as the LA Angels), Texas Rangers
National League Teams:
East: Philadelphia Phillies, Atlanta Braves, Washington Nationals, New York Mets, Miami Marlins
Central: Milwaukee Brewers, Chicago Cubs, St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cincinnati Reds
West: Los Angeles Dodgers, Arizona Diamondbacks, Colorado Rockies, San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres
The Playing Field:
The Infield consists of the Base Paths and Bases (collectively referred to as the baseball diamond), the On Deck Circles, the Batters Boxes, the Coaching Boxes, the Pitchers Mound, and part of Foul Territory, it is borderd by the Hitter's Backdrop/Backstop and the Home Team's and Visitor's Dugouts.
The Bases: Home Plate (rarely referred to as Home Base), First Base, Second Base, Third Base. When a player is in contact with a base he is Safe and cannot be tagged out.
Fair/Foul Territory:
Foul Territory: If a ball lands on the ground in foul territory then it is out of play and the ball is dead. Likewise, if a ball rolls foul before it crosses either First or Third Base, it is foul and the play is dead. Like in Tennis, all parts of the First Base and Third Base Lines (including the Foul Poles) are considered in fair territory and the ball is still in play. However: if a player catches a pop-up in foul territory before the ball hits the ground it is considered a pop-out and the batter is Out.
Officials: The officials in baseball are Umpires, sometimes (but rarely) called Umps. There are four on the field at all times, one at each base. The Home Plate Umpire is in charge of calling Balls and Strikes and in general is the official running the show. First, Second, and Third Base Umpires determine if a runner is Safe or Out on a play and if the runner stayed in the base path when running the bases (if he didn't, he's then called out). First and Third Base Umpires also determine if a hit ball is Fair or Foul (thus out of play), and are appealed to by the Catcher and/or Home Plate Umpire to decide if a Batter has Gone Around On (Swung At) a pitch (which would be a strike if he did).
MLB has instituted the Replay Review, in which a team can challenge certain calls by Umpires on the field (safe/out at First Base, e.g.). When this occurs, there is a separate team of Umpires in New York, at the MLB Replay Command Center, which review the video of the play from many angles and often frame-by-frame to determine if the call on the field was correct or should be overturned. Only if there is definitive evidence that the call on the field was incorrect will it be overturned.
Ground Rules:
Ground Rules are the rules of play in a specific ballpark that cover all the weird crap that might happen because of the geography of that particular park. (Beyond some very basic rules covering things like the distance between bases, baseball fields are not standardized like American Football fields, so there are many variations in ballparks.) The Home Team determines the Ground Rules of their particular park, which are public knowledge and available to anyone. Any changes in a ballpark's Ground Rules during a season must be approved by The Comissioner's Office (this rarely happens).
The Basics of Play:
Nine defensive players are on the field at a time: the Pitcher, the Catcher, the First Baseman, the Second Baseman, the Shortstop, the Third Baseman, the Right Fielder, the Center Fielder, and the Left Fielder.
One offensive player at a time comes to Bat, by taking his place in the either the righthanded or lefthanded batter's box. Players that can hit both right- and left-handed are called Switch Hitters.
The Home Team plays defence first, making the Visiting Team the ones to bat in the first half of an inning (also called the Top of an inning). Baseball is unique in sport, in that the Defense is in control of the ball for the majority of the time it is in play, as opposed to most other sports, like basketball, where the reverse is true.
The game officially starts when the First Pitch is thrown by the Starting Pitcher (always called First Pitch, never first throw).
The pitcher must stand on the Pitcher's Mound to pitch, and his back foot must be in contact with the Rubber Slab that is imbedded in the mound.
The distance between the rubber slab and the rear point of home plate is fixed at 60 feet 6 inches.
The distance between each base is 90 feet, thus the infield forms a perfect square that is 90 feet on each side.
The infield, specifically the pitcher's mound and the basepaths, is always made of clay dirt. Sometimes there is grass inside the basepaths and surrounding the pitcher's mound, but not always.
The Outfield is always grass (with the exception of the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays, which use artificial turf in thier ballparks) usually edged by about 15 feet of dirt Warning Track between the edge of the outfield grass and the Outfield Fence.
The object, for the pitcher, is to get the batters out. Each half inning is over when there are three outs.
A player is out when he
1: Strikes Out (either looking or swinging), three strikes equals one out.
2: puts the ball in play and it is caught by a defender before it hits the ground, a Fly-Out or a Line-Out (as in, "he flied out to the left fielder" or "he lined out to the shortstop").
3: Hits the ball on the ground but it is fielded by a defenseman and relayed to the First Baseman and the First Baseman touches First Base before the runner does, a Force Out (at First Base).
4: is tagged out while running and not touching a base (where he would be Safe, unable to be tagged/forced out),
5: is a runner on the basepaths and is forced out by the defenseman at the base to which he would have advanced.
The Home Team comes up to bat in the second half, or bottom, of an Inning. When both teams have each had a chance to bat, that is one complete inning over.
The object of the game is to score more Runs than the opposing team. A Run is scored when a player rounds all three bases and safely crosses Home Plate.
There are Nine Innings in a regulation game of Baseball.
There are never any ties in a baseball game. If the game is tied at the end of nine innings then the game continues into Extra Innings until the tie is broken and both teams have played the same number of innings. For example, if the Visiting team scores a Run in the top of the eleventh inning, the game continues until the Home team has a chance to bat in the bottom of that inning, giving them a chance to play offense the same number of innings as the Visiting team. If the Home team proceeds to tie the game, but not to go ahead, the game continues on in the same way until the tie no longer exists. This has led to some brutally long games at times, sometimes 20 or more innings, which is more than twice the length of a normal baseball game.
Baseball cannot be played in the rain. There are often rain delays, and sometimes a game has to be rescheduled due to a rain out. There are other weather-related circumstances which cause a game to be ended early or rescheduled, sometimes depending on the location.
The Designated Hitter:
I have great personal distaste for the designated hitter, so I'll just let the MLB site say it for me:
Established via a 1973 rule, the designated hitter -- or "DH" -- is a player who bats in place of the pitcher. The pitcher still handles his regular duties when his team is on defense, so the designated hitter does not play in the field.
Only the American League uses the designated hitter. Pitchers must bat in National League games and Interleague games in which the NL team is the designated home team.
Clubs utilize the DH position in several ways, with some employing a full-time DH and others using it as a means to provide one of their other regular players with a partial day of rest. The position can also be beneficial to aging or injury-prone players who are no longer capable of playing defense on a regular basis but can still offer value at the plate.
Interleague Play:
As noted above, when teams from different leagues play each other the rules for the home team's league preside. The scheduling of interleague games is quite complicated, as is the history of Interleague Play. I refer any interested parties to this Wikipedia Article. For Interleague games with teams that are not considered Natural Rivals (e.g. the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A's), they only play each other once every three years. So, for example, the Seattle Mariners would only play the Chicago Cubs once every three years.
Scheduling:
The schedule for all teams is set by MLB. Teams may request that certain times of year they be scheduled for away games for reasons such as historically adverse weather conditions (e.g. the San Francisco Giants regularly open the season away from home because of the high probability of rain in SF at the start of April), but MLB is under no obligation to honor those requests.
The baseball season officially starts on Opening Day, which is traditionally April 1, but in 2018 was March 29, due to the addition of four extra off days for all teams to the schedule after the new collective bargaining agreement was completed in 2016.
Baseball teams play a series of either 3 or 4 games in a row against another team (except interleague play, which is usually two games at one team's ballpark and two at the other's). The first two games of a series are usually evening/night games followed by a day game on the third day to allow the visiting team (or both teams, if the home team's homestand is ending) time to travel to the next city that same day, after the game is over.
Okay, that's it. I'm tired now.
If you want to dive in-depth into the guts of the game (or you want a really, really dry read), you can check out the MLB 2018 Official Baseball Rules. Good luck.
If you want to deep-dive into the history of baseball, I highly recommend Ken Burns' epic nine-part documentary Baseball, its follow-up The Tenth Inning, and his Jackie Robinson documentary, all from PBS. I don't know if they are available in the UK, unfortunately. Maybe through the BBC or something? I know PBS partners with the BBC to bring British film and television to the US, so maybe it's a reciprocal thing when we have something good enough that the UK is actually interested.