The Basic Concepts Of The Game - 1770 Words

Part 1 Section 1: The basic concepts of the game Baseball is a team sport played over a special field with play divided into periods called innings. Each of these innings is further separated into two halves; the â€Å"top† and the â€Å"bottom† of the innings. Points in baseball are scored by the team on offense hitting the thrown ball and running around the four bases back to the starting position to score. But, if the runner is tagged with the baseball by one the players on defense before completing the run, that runner is out. After three outs, the inning moves from the top to the bottom or from the bottom of one inning to the top of the next and the teams switch sides. During a half inning the entire defensive†¦show more content†¦Section 2: The layout of the field The baseball field, (also sometimes referred to as the diamond), is a specially designed field made of two basic parts; the infield and the outfield. The infield is where most of the action happens. It is defined by four bases at each corner of the diamond-shaped infield set into the ground and evenly spaced apart. In Professional and high school leagues the bases are 90 feet apart from each other. The infield is mainly made of dirt except for a lake of grass in the middle with an island of dirt in the middle called the pitcher’s mound. The pitcher’s mound is 60.5 feet from home plate in professional and high school level play. The batter stands at a special plate called home plate where the pitch will be thrown to from the pitcher’s mound. The hitter will attempt to hit the ball with his bat and put the ball into play. There are chalk-painted rectangles on either side of home plate that defines where the batter stands. In which box the batter stands in depe nds on if he/she is left-handed or right-handed. There is another painted box behind home plate that defines where the catcher crouches to catch the ball if the batter misses. Looking at the diagram, hopefully you notice that there are two long white lines labelled as foul lines. The foul lines define the sides of the infield and the outfield. If any ball is hit and it goes to the right of the first-base-side foul line or if it goes