Baseball

Baseball can be traced back to the mid 18th century being played in England, and was brought over to the Americas by immigrants. The first recorded game in the USA took place in New Jersey in 1846.

The game is a bat and ball game played on a diamond shaped play area between to opposing teams consisting of nine players and nine innings per game.The winning team is the team with the most runs at the end of the game.

The layout of the game is a 'home' plate with three other base bags all placed equi distant apart ( 27.4 metres ) in a diamond shape. The 'pitchers' mound is in the centre, 18.4metres from the home plate.

There are specific positions in this game with no variations - They are:-

• Pitcher
• Catcher
• 1st Base
• 2nd Base
• 3rd Base
• Short stop (who stands between 2nd and 3rd base)
• Three Outfielders - Left,Center and Right.

The pitcher throws the ball at the home plate where the batter stands, who tries to hit the ball. On contact with the ball the batter has to run to as many bases as possible. If he is able to make it back to home base without stopping this is classified as a home run. If there are other players on the other bases they also run to the home plate and each one scores a run, which is worth one. The batter does not run if the ball is hit and goes 'foul', that is, outside the demarcated playing area.

Each innings is terminated after three batters are out, which can be in a number of different ways some which are ;the batter fails to hit the ball on the pitchers throw three times,the batter is caught out by a fielder who catchers the ball before it hits the ground,or the batter is not able to make it to a base before the fielding side throw the ball to a baseman, thereby running him out.

Baseball became the national sport of The United States by the nineteenth century, and has also become entrenched in other countries in South America, Cuba, Japan and in Europe. Major League Baseball in America and Canada are split into two, the National League and the American League, each with three divisions, an East, Central and West.Playoffs in the different Leagues, culminate in a World Series, which takes place annually.

Baseball was included into the Olympics in 1992, but was dropped in the 2012 Olympics due to the necessity of an extended playing season for the MLB, which would mean games played in colder weather.