Sport in-depth: Baseball equipment
Baseball is a very interesting sport; two teams take to a field and individually a batter comes to the plate and the team that is out in the field tries to get the batter out. Batters can get out by being struck out, run out and caught. Every player on the
field of play wears some sort of special equipment to play the game. Players on the fielding side wear a special leather glove to be able to catch the ball easier. A large portion of the players wear baseball hats, uniforms, guards and sometimes also sliding
shorts. Along with the bat that is used, all of this equipment is absolutely vital to the game. There may be various changes to the equipment used in the game from time to time, but it will not lessen the thrill and excitement that engulf the game.
Over time there have been additions and amendments to the equipment used, but the bat, the gloves and the ball have all stayed pretty much the same. We can focus solely on these three pieces of equipment and there is enough information regarding them to
keep any avid baseball fan entertained. These three items used in the sport are the basic essentials without which the game cannot be played.
The bat that is used in baseball has only one purpose; to hit the ball. A batter holds the bat with two hands and attempts to hit the ball being pitched towards him or her. In Major League Baseball, all of the bats used are made of wood and have to be of
certain length and weight. A bat cannot be more than 42 inches in length and 1 kg in weight. Other leagues and the amateur level of the sport sometimes use metal bats made of aluminium but the bats in the MLB are made from either ash, maple wood, hickory wood
and, nowadays increasingly bamboo. Even though it may look simple, a baseball bat is a very complex piece of equipment. It is engineered in a certain way to provide a batter with a balanced swing while providing power. The weight of a bat in comparison to
its length helps determine how easy it is to swing or how much power it has.
The ball used in baseball is also very complicated and is made up of numerous layers. Under the current rules of the game, a ball must weigh between 5 and 5.25 ounces and is 9 to 9.25 inches in circumference. Each ball has several layers in it and at the
centre of each one is a rubber or cork, which is wrapped in yarn and then covered in leather. Each ball is white and has 108 double stitches in red down either side. These are the seams and they help to change the direction of the ball in mid air and lead
to a pitcher being able to throw a fast ball or a curve ball at a batter.
We finally come to another important aspect of the game; the glove. Every player on the fielding side has to wear a glove in order to help in catching the ball. In olden times, players caught the ball with their bare hands but after a while coverings appeared
for their palms only. Soon a full glove was introduced to the sport, and they are still used today. There are several different types of gloves; the fielders’ gloves, the catcher’s mitt, the first baseman’s mitt and batter gloves. Almost all the fielding gloves
are made of leather and have long fingers and a webbed surface between the fingers and the thumb. The catcher’s mitt is a large glove without fingers that is heavily padded to reduce injury while catching. The first baseman’s mitt also lacks fingers and is
very long and scooped to allow them to scoop up and also catch badly thrown balls. An infielder’s glove is smaller than the first baseman’s glove but has fingers and is used by every player who is positioned in the infield. An outfielder’s glove is longer
with a deep pocket, in order to catch long hit balls easily.
Just these three pieces of equipment play such a big part of the game that baseball would be very different without them. We will continue to see innovations in the bats, balls and gloves in the future but the principles behind them will stay the same.
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