Origins of Baseball – How is it played?
Some one very well said that “Life is like a baseball game. When you think a fastball is coming, You gotta be ready to hit the curve”.
The first game of baseball was played in the mid 18th century, precisely on June 19 1846 in New Jersey, Hoboken. This game was the first to be played under proper rules and regulations, helping to be the stepping stone of the game’s future.
Baseball and cricket to a certain extent share the sisterly love, with the game being played by a bat and a ball as well, allowing a total of nine players on both competing sides. The main objective is to hit the ball thrown from the player of the other team with the bat and running to touch a total of four bases. The four bases are shaped up in a diamond or square looking pattern, the size of which is ninety-foot. In comparison to cricket, the bat and ball used in baseball are designed according to game’s own different physics; the bat being thicker and cylindrical at the bottom with a thin handle, while the ball having a wayward looking seam, which does not give the ball any trajectory in the air.
The teams are divided into batting and fielding teams, the players on the batting team take turns hitting the ball thrown by the thrower or pitcher of the other team which is doing the fielding. The fielding team has to restrict the batting side from scoring runs by getting the hitters out. The main component of scoring in baseball is running from one base to another. In wake of this, the players of the batting side are placed on every base and change their bases, advancing from one to another when their team mate hits a shot. The restriction of the batting innings depends on the fielding side as they can finish the batting innings when they record three outs. A single turn to bat makes up one innings. In baseball a total of nine innings are played, which is the standard level at the professional level of the game. The team with the most runs at the end thus wins.
Baseball’s evolution is much similar to all the other games played by bat and ball from the Englishmen. The similarity between cricket and baseball is thus very explicit. The British and Irishmen when moved to the Northern continent of America, brought this game, and quite dramatically Northern America ended up in being the hub of Baseball where the way it was played was modified. Baseball took a flash of time in reaching out to every corner of Northern America. With just under 50 years of its evolution in the region it was unanimously recognized as the continents national sport. Baseball since its birth has rapidly travelled across the world, one achievement its sister, cricket has failed to pocket. In America it has been played at several levels, ranging from professional, amateur and college levels.
The game has a couple of derived versions as well; it is sometimes called hardball, with its popularity among both sexes, it is also played by women under the name of softball, with the ball in it being of a lighter material and the size of the pitch smaller than the usual .
It is perturbing the way baseball has made its way to the opposite sides of the world. In Japan the game is played with the same fervour, with its major baseball league it is amazingly popular among the thin built Japanese. Their baseball season is divided into two leagues, Japan’s Central League and Pacific League.
In Cuba the game shares a great bit of following too with Cuba’s West League and East League. The game rules do, to a mini scalar extent, vary from region to region. In the National Leagues the pitcher bats. In the Pacific, American and Cuban Leagues, there is a tenth player who does the batting for the pitcher.
The nature of the baseball leagues allows younger players to compete with the professional players at a level at which they can gain useful experience from the games giants. In the baseballing epicentre, Major League Baseball (MLB) teams are divided into American League and Central League, with every league being divided into three divisions, east, west and central. The World Series is the biggest event in the games calendar; four teams are deduced from every team to make it to the final playoffs. The big guns in the World Series are Red Sox and the New York Yankees, having the world’s most expensive and experienced players.
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