How to Watch a Baseball Game

Preface:

Baseball is an amazing game to watch and can at times be the most exciting sport to watch. It can also be the most boring. But if you’re going to know about sports, you need to learn to appreciate the brilliance and majesty of baseball, even if the pace of the game feels boring. If you don’t appreciate the game it can be very difficult to even pretend to care. So here are two parts about baseball that to the untrained eye seem long and drawn out but to the true fan is why we call it the National Past Time.

• There is a lot of time in between every pitch. During the course of a 3 and a half hour game there is about 15-17 minutes of the ball being in play. There is about 20 seconds in between each pitch. Sometimes the pace feels slow, but you must understand that every single pitch is so crucial and potentially a game changing pitch, that much careful consideration much be put into every pitch. Every swing of the bat could change the complexion of the game.
• The reason that ever pitch is so important is because the game is never over until the final out is recorded. No lead is insurmountable. None! There is no time limit, there is no mercy rule, so the game only ends when the players have finished playing. This is the only team sport like this, and it leads to very exciting comebacks. In baseball, it sometimes seems like nothing is impossible.

Basics of the Game:

The game is divided into nine innings, which are comprised of two half innings. A half inning ends when three outs have been recorded. The home team always begins by playing defense in the first half (top half) of each inning, pitching the ball to the away team, and then when three outs have been recorded the away team pitches to and defends against the home team’s batters.

There are four bases: First base, second base, third base, and home plate. When a batter reaches a base, before they get out (see explanation below) they are safe at that base. Once they move from a base they are in danger of getting out again, until the reach the next base safely. If a player is successfully able to reach every base, and finally reach home plate, safely, they have scored a run for their team. The team with the most runs at the end of the ninth inning, wins the game.

The order of the batters is strategically chosen by the manager, before the game. There are nine batters in the “line up” and they must follow in the order that was chosen at the start of the game. They can be replaced by pinch hitters or runners but those replaced can not come back in during that game.

An out can be recorded in a number of ways: If the batter hits the ball and a defender catches the ball before it touches the ground during the play. A batter must run toward first base if they hit the ball and if the batter hits the ball on the ground and a defender gets possession of the ball (usually thrown from another defender) while touching first base, before the batter arrives at first base, the batter is out. Since the batter must always run to first base after they hit the ball, if there is an offensive player on first base they are forced to go to second base (and a person at second will then be forced to go to third and so on). If a defender possesses the ball and is touching a base that an offensive player is forced to advance toward, before the offensive player arrives, he is out. Also, any time that an offensive player is not safely on a base a defender in possession of the ball can tag the offensive player with the ball and that is an out.

Strikeouts is another way to record an out. A strike out occurs when a batter has gotten three strikes during their at bat. A strike is either when a batter swings at a pitch and misses or when the batter watches a pitch go past him that is over homeplate and in between his knees and chest (the homeplate umpire calls these types of strikes). Also when the batter hits the ball outside of the field of play, determined by white lines between home plate and first base and between home plate and third base, that is a “foul ball.” Foul balls count as strikes but a third strike cannot be the result of a foul ball.

Key Terms:

Home run – When a batter hits the ball over the back fences (on average about 375 feet away from homeplate) they are given a free pass to round the bases safely, resulting in a run when he arrives at homeplate. Any other offensive players who were safely on base at the time also score freely. It’s very cool how far these players can hit the ball.

Walk – If the batter watches a pitch go past him, and the umpire declares that the pitch was not both directly over the plate and between the batter’s knees and chest, this pitch is a “ball”. If a pitcher pitches 4 balls to a batter, in one time up to bat, the batter is given a free pass to first base. This is considered a walk.

Base hit/Hit/Single – When a batter hits the ball in a location that no defender can catch the ball or get to it in time to get the ball to first base before the runner reaches the base.

Double – When the batter is able to arrive at second base safely before being tagged by a defender.

Triple – When a batter is able to arrive at third base safely before being tagged by a defender.

Hitting for the Cycle – If a batter is able to hit a single, double, triple and homerun (in any order) in the same game they have hit for the cycle. Very rare.

Error – If a defender has a chance to record an out, but makes a mistake allowing the offensive player to be safe, this is an error. It does not count as a hit for the batter.

No Hitter – If a pitcher is able to keep the other team from reaching base safely with a hit for the entire nine inning game. Rare.

Perfect Game- If a pitcher is able to keep the other team from reaching base safely at all (no errors or walks). Very rare.

Batting Average – Is determined by dividing the number of hits that a player achieves during a season by the number of times the batter was at the plate during the season. Batting over a .300 percent (so only 3 out of ten times you get a hit) is considered very good for a batter.

E.R.A. – Stands for Earned Run Average. Is a statistic for pitchers determined by how many earned runs they allow (earned runs meaning runs not caused by an error) over the course of 9 innings (27 outs). Less that a 3.00 ERA is considered very good for a pitcher.