Baseball is a
sport played between two
teams of nine or 10 players each, depending on whether a
designated hitter is being used. It is a
bat-and-ball game in which a
pitcher throws (
pitches) a hard, fist-sized, leather-covered
ball toward a
batter on the opposing team. The batter attempts to hit the baseball with a tapered cylindrical
bat, made of wood (as required in
professional baseball) or a variety of other materials, such as
aluminum, as allowed in many non-professional games. A team scores
runs only when batting, by advancing its players — primarily via
hits — past a series of four markers called
bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or "diamond." The game, played without time restriction, is structured around nine segments called
innings. In each inning, both teams are given the opportunity to bat and score runs; a team's half-inning ends when three
outs are recorded against that team.
Baseball, at both the professional and amateur levels, is popular in North America, Central America, parts of South America, parts of the Caribbean, and East Asia. The modern version of the game developed in North America during the eighteenth century. The consensus of historians is that it evolved from earlier bat-and-ball games, such as rounders, brought to the continent by British and Irish immigrants. By the late nineteenth century, baseball was widely recognized as the national sport of the United States. The game is sometimes referred to as hardball to differentiate it from similar sports such as softball. (more...)
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