How to Understand Baseball

Baseball is played with nine active players per side. One team is "in the field" while the other takes its turn at bat. The goal for the team at bat is to get the player at bat around the three bases on the field and back to home plate. The player at bat literally has a bat, usually a 36-oz. piece of wood, that he swings at a ball thrown to him by the other team's pitcher. The team in the field tries to prevent runs by getting the offensive team's players "out."

Learn the nine positions on each team. The pitcher is the one in the middle who throws the ball to a catcher behind the plate. The bases are manned by a first baseman, second baseman, third baseman, with a shortstop between the second and third basemen. The three outfielders are the left fielder, center fielder and right fielder. The positions only come into play on defense. Unlike most team sports, a team cannot score while playing defense.

Pitching is a matter of trying to convince the batter to swing at a pitch he can't really hit. The pitcher throws to the catcher, but he is also trying to throw within a strike zone. This zone is determined by the umpire who is positioned behind the catcher. A ball thrown within the strike zone, which is usually the area over home plate and between the batter's chest and knees, is considered fair game for the batter to swing at. If he does not swing, it is considered a "strike." If he swings and misses, or hits it "foul," it is also a strike. If the batter declines to swing and the umpire determines the pitch did not hit the strike zone, it is called a "ball." If the pitcher gets three strikes on a batter, the batter is out by way of a "strikeout," except a foul cannot be considered as a third strike. If he gives him four balls, the batter is awarded first base.

Once the ball is hit into fair territory, the defenders aim to get a batter out. They can either catch the ball in flight, or throw a ball that has hit the ground to a fielder covering the base the runner is trying to reach. In some cases, they can also just touch the base while holding the ball before the runner can reach that base.

A game is played for nine innings on the top levels. Each inning consists of three outs for each team. Each inning continues until a team has three outs, which means an inning can last as little as three pitches (if all three batters swing on the first pitch and make an out). If a team continues to get hits and runs, an inning can go on for much longer. There are no time limits in baseball. Likewise, the game is played until someone wins. If the score is tied at the end of nine innings, the game will continue into extra innings. The longest game in modern major league baseball history, as of 2011, was a 25-inning affair in 1984. Most games last a little under 3 hours. That game lasted 8 hours and 6 minutes.

Learn about the different kinds of safe hits. New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter claimed in a 2011 TV special that his then girlfriend thought a hit was anytime the batter made a connection with the ball. This is not the case. The ball must hit the ground before a fielder gets it, or the batter must run to first base 90 feet to his right, and touch the base before a fielder can throw the ball to the base. There are four bases. If the batter stops at first, it's a single. If he reaches second, it's a double. If he gets to third, it's a triple. If he is able to go from batting all the way around to home plate, it's a home run. This normally happens only if the ball was hit over a fence in the outfield.

There are many other baseball terms and plays to learn. Some of them are bunt, error, sacrifice fly and double play. Pitchers also throw different kinds of "pitches" that have their own names, like the fastball, the curve and the slider. Try to learn these other terms after you understand the basics about outs and runs.