Background

Baseball’s roots are found in the English games of cricket and rounders, brought to the U.S. by English emigrants.

Rounders was played with four bases and involved as “feeder” who tossed the ball to to a “striker” who hit the ball with a stick. The striker was declared “out” if he swung and missed three times or if a defender caught a hit ball. The striker was also out if a defender threw a ball and hit him as he ran. Sound familiar?

Fun Facts

Major League Baseball (MLB) is the highest level of professional baseball in the U.S. and Canada and has been around since 1901.

MLB is currently composed of 30 teams — twenty-nine in the United States and one in Canada – who play 162 games over a season.

Basic Rules

Baseball is a game played between two teams with 9 players each, over nine innings. In each inning, one team has a turn to bat and the other team pitches. The batting team tries to hit the ball and score runs. On the other hand, the pitching team tries to make the batting team miss the balls and get the players out.

In the first inning, the home team pitches and the visiting team is first at bat.

If three players of the batting team are out, the positions of the teams will interchange, the pitching team will start batting and the batting team will start pitching.

If a hitter stops on a base (becoming a “base runner”), then he can advance again when the next hitter is “at bat”. Thus any time you see a hitter put the ball into play, you’ll not only see him running, but any team-mates on other bases running as well.

If a hitter manages to hit the ball over the outfield wall (a “Home Run”) then he, and any other base-runners automatically advance to home base. Any time a runner manages to reach home base, he scores a run.

Teams win by making the most run over the nine innings. If the teams have an equal number of runs after the 9 innings, the teams play more innings until there is a winner.