How to Play

Baseball is a sport that combines both simplicity and complexity to create a perfect sport for people of all ages. At its simplest, baseball is throw ball, hit ball, catch ball, but the actual rules are much more complex than that.

Rules

There are many complex rules in baseball, but they can all be broken down to try and make sense of them. Some of the simple ones are:

• The batter has to stand in the batters box when up to bat


• The batter has to touch the base in order to be called safe


• The ball must be in the field of play for the runner to be called safe at a base


• If the ball is hit out of the field of play, a player on defense can catch it before it hits the ground for an out, otherwise it is called as a strike for the batter until the batter is counted at two strikes, at which point a foul ball does not contribute to the count


• The strike zone is an invisible box in which the pitcher must throw the ball for three strikes for an out


• If the pitcher throws outside of the box, and the umpire behind the plate calls them balls, then the batter may advance to first base


• If a ball is hit into play and it is hit in the air, then the defensive players may catch it before it hits the ground for an out


• An umpire's decision is final for everyone, although coaches may challenge a call if needed


• The second baseman cannot stand directly behind the pitcher's mound. As such, all players are expected to play their position a few feet away from their base. This excludes outfielders, the pitcher, and the catcher


• A runner on base may attempt to steal the next base in the basepath whenever a ball is in play


• If a foul ball is hit, a runner trying to steal has to go back to his original base


• If a batter swings at a pitch and misses, it counts as a strike


• If the batter swings a half-swing, the home plate umpire will point to a baseline umpire (first base umpire for right handed batters and third base umps for left) to determine whether the batters bat crossed home plate enough that the ball could have been put into play. If the umps decide the bat crossed the plate, then it is counted as a strike


• If a batter attempts to steal a base, the catcher may throw the ball to the baseman the runner is attempting to steal. However, the baseman will have to tag the runner with the ball in his glove to get the out because it is not a force-out at that base


• If the ball reaches the baseman's glove on the base at the exact same time the runner touches the base, then the runner is safe


• The only equipment a player is required to have is a uniform (complete with a jersey, pants, underpant, a cup, and hat), a helmet, a bat, and a glove. Other items such as elbow and ankle guards and sliding mitts are optional


• A team's coach determines what players bat and in what order. The pitcher usually does not have a spot in the batting order, and in his place is what's called a "designated hitter"


• If, by some rare occurence, the third strike comes but the catcher does not catch the ball, the batter may attempt to run to first base. This is called a "drop third strike"


• A home run occurs when a batter hits the ball fair, but out of the field of play, meaning it is impossible for the players to retrieve the ball for an out on the bases. The batter runs through all of the bases, eventually coming home to score for his team


• When a home run occurs, all runners already present on the bases may also come in to score for their team


• If a batter is injured or is deemed to risky to have running the bases, a pinch hitter or a pinch runner may take his place. The pinch runner has to wait until the original batter is safe on a base to be put in


• When the pitcher achieves three strikeouts, or the three outs are obtained in other ways through fielding, then ends a half inning


• At the end of a half inning, the two teams switch from offense to defense and defense to offense


• There are typically nine innings in a game. If a game is tied, the game may go longer to tenth, eleventh, and even sometimes twelfth innings. There can be more, and there has been more, but it is very rare


• If the batter reaches first base, he can run through the base further until he comes to a stop and he will still be safe. This only applies to runners going to first base after hitting the ball


• The visiting team will begin batting at the start of a game while the home team plays defense


• If the pitcher accidentally hits the batter with a pitch, then it is an automatic walk for the batter regardless of how many strikes or balls are in the count

There are more rules that are much more complicated than these shown above and a little hard to explain without a demonstration.