Baseball rules that people can understand at a glance

Many people watch baseball, but because the rules are too confusing, they can’t understand what baseball is about. So, this article starts from the core of baseball and tells you what baseball rule is.

What is baseball?

It’s very simple, it’s just about who can swing the bat and hit the ball farther.

But the measure of how far the ball is hit is not with a ruler, but with legs:

When you run away while your opponent is picking up the ball, the farther you run before your opponent picks it up, the farther you hit the ball and the higher your score. You get one point after running a base.

Under this core rule, there are no specific rules for both sides of the game.

Since the competition is about who can swing the bat and hit the ball farther, the one who swings the bat to hit the ball is the attacker, and the one who hinders him is the defender.

Generally, each team has nine players, one team attacks and the other defends. Only the attacking team can score, and the defending team cannot score. The attacking team can only be eliminate. After three players are eliminate, the game ends and the two teams switch between offense and defense to start a new game. Each team completes one attack and one defense, which is a game. There are nine games in total. After the nine games, the team with the higher score wins.

A game is divided into two halves, with each team taking up one half. The attacking team takes one player at a time, and the others are substitutes. The player on the attacking side only needs to swing the bat and hit the ball, and is called a batsman. The batsman only needs to hit the ball and run a circle to score a point. All nine players on the defending side take to the field and try every means to get the attacking players out.

Offensive player

The offensive player can score points as long as he runs a circle after hitting the ball. The ball hit by the offensive player is thrown by the defensive player. In order to prevent the defensive player from deliberately throwing randomly and preventing the offensive player from hitting the ball, the rules specifically restrict the defensive pitcher from throwing randomly, that is, the pitcher must throw a ball that the batter can theoretically hit, that is, a strike. If the pitcher does not throw a strike, it is a ball and he will be penalized.

The baseball rule is called four balls, that is, four balls walk the batter to first base. In the game, a specific area in front of the batter is called the strike zone, and as long as the pitch passes through the strike zone, it is considered a strike. If the offensive batter does not catch the strike ball, it is called a strike. If he fails to catch it three times, he is out, which is called a strikeout.

Therefore, baseball is a game in which one player on the defensive side throws the ball and the other player catches the ball. The batter on the offensive side swings the bat and hits the ball between the pitcher and the catcher, and then starts running. The farther they run, the higher the score. In order to standardize the game, they have to run along a specific route. This route is designed to be a square, and one point is scored for running a circle along the square. So the offensive side only needs to do one thing: hit the ball, run a circle, and then score a point after running a circle.

Defensive side

This makes the baseball game too monotonous. In order to increase the confrontation, the defensive side must be allow to interfere with the offensive side’s running circle, and even eliminate the offensive side through interference, that is, out of the game. However, if the offensive side keeps interfering, it may be eliminate as soon as it runs, so the interference of the defensive side must be limited so that the defensive side cannot interfere all the time. Therefore, the offensive side can run a circle when the defensive side does not interfere, and may be eliminate when the defensive side interferes. In this way, the two sides will compete with each other, and the game will be fierce and much more interesting.

The restriction on the defense is that there are safe spots on the way of the offense’s running circle. The offense can only interfere with the offense between the safe spots. The safe spots are the bases. The bases are place at the four vertices of the running route quadrilateral. The vertex in the center of the infield is the starting position of the batter after hitting the ball. The vertices that run counterclockwise are first base, second base, and third base, and finally return to home base. One point is scored for completing a circle. In terms of time, interference can only start after receiving the ball.

Attacking team

The attacking team just needs to hit the ball and run. When hitting the ball, you either hit the ball or miss it. If you miss it, you will be penalized, that is, you will be eliminated after three misses, which is called a strikeout. If the ball is hit, it must fly forward, the farther the better. But when hitting the ball, the ball may fly in any direction, to the left or right. Therefore, there are sideline restrictions on the left and right sides. Flying beyond the sideline is called out of bounds, and hitting an out-of-bounds ball will be penalized. There is no limit to the forward direction, the farther the better, even if it flies out of the court.

After the batter hits the ball, he must start running. He must run through first base, second base, and third base in order to return to home base. This is call a base run, and the batter becomes a base runner. Baseball rules stipulate that there can only be one person on first base. When the batter runs from home base to first base, if there is someone on first base, that person must leave first base, give up first base, and run to second base. This is call a force base run. This is an important rule of baseball. Similarly, if there is someone on second base, the second baseman must also be force to advance to third base.

When the offense is running, the defense can only interfere with the offense and make the offense out after receiving the ball. There are three ways to interfere with the offense:

1. Receive the kill.

That is, if the ball is catch by a defensive player before it hits the ground, the offensive batsman can be directly eliminate, which is call a catch.

2. Killing by contact.

When the ball hits the ground and is catch by a defensive player, the defensive player must hold the ball. If the ball, or the hand or glove holding the ball, touches the body of the offensive runner, the runner will be eliminated, which is called tagging. The defensive player cannot hold the ball to the ground before tagging, otherwise the tagging will be invalid.

3. Ban.

That is, when a base runner is forced to advance, the defending team advances the base early with the ball, resulting in the base runner having no base to advance to and being eliminate. This is call a shutout.

Therefore, the attacking team is at risk of being eliminate at any time during the base running process. The attacking team usually cannot complete a circle before the defense picks up the ball, so they have to stay on the base temporarily.

In actual games, the batsman on the offensive side must start running immediately after hitting the ball, run to the base and stay there, and then the next player will come to bat. The next player must also start running after hitting the ball, running from home base to first base. If there is someone on first base, the person on first base must run to second base, which is call a force base run. The offensive side passes first base, second base, and third base in turn and returns to home base to complete a circle and gets one point.

Nine people come to the field to bat in turn, and each person gets one point after running a circle. They can cycle on the field before three people are out, so theoretically there is no upper limit on the score. The defensive side will try its best to get three offensive players out to end the game and switch between offense and defense.

Catching the ball

Therefore, the offense can only run the bases without interference before the defense catches the ball. If the defense keeps catching the ball, can’t the offense keep running around and scoring without interference? Yes, such a ball is call a home run or a home run. In actual games, it is to hit a high fly ball that flies out of the field, so that the defense can’t catch the ball at all, and the offense can safely run back to the base to score. Therefore, a home run is often the climax of a baseball game.

After hitting a home run, everyone on the base can safely return to home base to score, and the number of people on the base is determine by the number of points score. There are at most four people on base, so a home run can score a maximum of 4 points. These 4 points can sometimes reverse the game, so home runs are the most exciting.

This is how baseball works. These are the main rules. There are more details that I won’t go into, but if you understand the main rules, you can understand baseball games.