Over the summer, I went to a Portland Sea Dogs game in Maine with two of my best friends. After the batter watched the third pitch go by, my friend turned to me and asked why he wasn’t out. I checked the scoreboard — maybe I heard a call wrong, or missed something? Nope. The count was 3-0. I responded “No he’s not out. That was ball three.”
She said, “I know. Why isn’t he out?”
My other friend chimed in. “Yeah, isn’t it third pitch you’re out?”
Turns out, they had no idea what the difference between a ball and a strike was. Only after four more innings of me explaining the very tedious rules of baseball, did I accept that baseball was not as easy to understand as I had thought.
THE RULES
Major and minor league baseball games are played for nine innings. The home team starts the game on defense (in the field) and the away team starts hitting on offense (batting).
There are nine defensive positions, five in the infield (dirt) and three in the outfield (grass). Baseball is played within the white lines that run alongside first and third base paths, called foul lines. If a ball lands within the diamond created by the foul lines, it is a live (fair) ball and play continues. If it lands outside, it’s a foul ball.
If a foul ball is caught in the air, the batter is out. However, if a batter with two strikes and hits a foul ball that isn’t caught, they stay alive at the plate.
When a batter hits a ball in play, the runners start going from base to base. A runner is safe if they reach a base before the ball does. The way the defense gets a runner out is dependent on the positions of the other runners:
1. A force play occurs when the runner must advance to the next base. The defense can get the runner out by stepping on the base they are advancing to
2. If there is not a force play, the defense must tag the runner out by touching them with the ball in their glove
3. There is always a force play at first base
4. If there is no force, the runner does not have to advance to the next base
5. Three outs end an inning
A pitch that a batter does not hit is either a ball or a strike. The strike zone is an imaginary box that pitchers aim their pitches at. It spans from the hitter’s chest to above their knees and is the width of home plate. Each umpire has a different strike zone, but a strike is a pitch that the batter should’ve been able to hit. A ball is a pitch outside the strike zone. Each at bat will end when there are either:
1. Four balls, where the batter is awarded a walk to first base
2. Three strikes, resulting in a strikeout
3. The ball is hit into play
4. Or, the batter is hit by a pitch, resulting in a dead ball awarding batter first base
Once the ball is in play, the batter will run to first base and continue running from base to base for as long as they think they can beat the ball to the base. Runs are scored when a runner makes it around all four bases back to home plate.
A ball that is hit over the outfield wall but within the foul lines is a home run.
Another exception is a ground rule double, when a ball first bounces fairly and becomes inaccessible to the defense. For example, ground rule doubles are called if a ball becomes stuck under the fence, or bounces on the field and then over the fence.
While I like to think I know baseball pretty well, I would have to ask the same caliber of questions about golf or other sports. I am so glad my friends felt comfortable enough to keep asking me questions and learn more about sports when it could have been easier to sit there confused. It was so cool to get the chance to teach them how my favorite sport works, and hopefully they’ll enjoy it more with a better idea of how it works. Just in case you too feel lost watching the Houston Astros, a Little League game or catch yourself walking past the Trinity Baseball Field, hopefully you can now have a better idea of the basics.
