The Rules of Baseball

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Baseball. To some people, that means the game starts at 5. For others, it means the American pastime. And for people like me, it means a game with a bat and ball. But baseball isn’t only about hitting the ball with a bat, like every game, there are rules. Before rules can be discussed, we must first know how to play the game of baseball. The game can be divided into 4 simple sections:
The Game
Two teams of nine players that alternate offense and defense. Professional baseball has nine innings while lower levels tend to have less innings. Each inning is divided into a top half (visiting team on offense) and a bottom half (home team on offense). The innings are played until one team scores three outs on their opponents. Each team gets three outs for each of their half innings. The goal is to score more runs (complete run around the diamond of four bases) than your opponent.
The Field
In professional games, four bases are set in a diamond 90 feet apart, but are closer in children leagues. The home base (4th plate) is connected to the 1st and 3rd bases by white lines. Foul territory is anything between the white lines and the field borders. That is, area not containing the second base The infield is the part close to the bases, and is covered in dirt, while the farther out grassy areas are the outfield.
Defense and Defense Positions
The pitcher stands on a mound in the middle and throws the ball towards the batter. The catcher catches the ball if the batter on the other team misses. The infielders are the first baseman, second baseman, shortstop (between second and third base), and third baseman. The last three players are the left, center, and right fielders. The goal of the defense is to get an offensive player out. The four most co...

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...softer balls and didn’t use gloves because the balls were thrown a little slower. They also banned metal baseball bats in the professional leagues because it made the balls travel too fast. Besides equipment, they have also added rules. Balking, or the hesitation of a pitcher’s throw, has been institutionalized not to be done in professional games because it messes with batters and runners chances of being sussesful.
In conclusion, baseball is a beloved American sport that is fairly simple to understand but is quite hard to play because of the long periods of time, extreme focus, and quick millisecond choices. Because of these difficulties, rules have been added to make it easier on some teams in younger divisions to have more even scores and a smaller playing time. Over time, rules and equipment have been changed or added to make the game fairer to both teams.

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