| This Sunday the baseball season officially opened with the game of New
York Mets and St. Louis Cardinals. Mets dominated the game and won
6-1. Many Americans consider the opening date for Major Baseball League one of
the most important dates on a calendar. Some avid fans love this date
more than Christmas. Perhaps it is due to the fact that baseball is
considered a truly American sport, something which is associated with
this land since childhood years - mom, baseball, apple pie. Henry Luce
once said that the 20th century was not only "American Century", it
will be remembered as "Baseball Century". And it's true that the history of
America and the history of baseball are parts of the same entity. The game
is in our blood and culture, and is considered most thoughtful of all
sports. Not surprisingly, this game inspired more books that about any
other sports. No other sport has it's collection of sports stars that
big that went into history as American legends, like Babe Ruth.
Baseball Rules:
In every individual game two teams take participation that plays
batting (attacking) and fielding (defensive) in a sequence.
Objective of the game is to accumulate more points/runs than the
opponent team. A point is considered when a player playing in batting
side, runs all over the base (Square bags, fixed to the
land), placed in the angles of squares with forming side of 90 ft
(27.4 meters).
Generally in baseball they play with a fist sized white ball with red
stitches. In each team 9 or 10 players play the game. The corners of
the playing square are numbered counter clock wise as "Home plate",
1st base, 2nd base and 3rd base.
One of the team (generally home team) plays on fielding side at the
beginning of the game. The 9 players of the team playing on fielding
side get out to field and try not to let the other team earn runs. The
guest team first plays on batting side and tries to make runs. Runs
are counted as follows: Starting from the "Home plate" every player of
the batting team tries to make a run in anti clock wise direction to
the next base (corner of the square) and, running and touching the
bases, and continuing to run to every next base and in the end returns
to "Home Plate" gaining runs.
Before the player of the batting team starts running, player of the
fielding team, called "Pitcher" (from English pitch - serve), stands
in a specified place in the center of the playing square. Other 8
players of the fielding team also are spread in the field each and
everybody in their specified position.
Player of the team, in the attacking side called as "batting", stands
beside the "Home Plate", holding a bat round in section, generally
made up of wood or from aluminum. The batsman waits for the pitcher to
serve the ball in the Home Plate direction. Pitcher throws the ball in
the Home Plate direction and the batsman tries to hit the ball with
the bat. If the batsman would able to hit the ball into the field, he
has to leave the bat and run towards the 1st base. (There are other
ways to reach the 1st base).
When the batsman starts running, he is called as "runner". If the
runner is able to reach the base, he is stated as in a "safe mode" (at
the 2nd and 3rd base the players are said to be safe only if they
touch the base, in case 1 base player can reach the base easily)
(safe), otherwise umpire declares it as (Out). If the player is out he
has to leave the field and be there on the bench (dugout). |
Sunday marked the opening day for Major League Baseball. Dick Cheney played baseball with his lawyer. The lawyer was the ball.
