Baseball
One team bats and runs the bases while the other fields; to change places, the defence must earn three outs.
Baseball is a game in which the clock does not run. There is none, and a match cannot end until the defence has earned the outs it needs. The losing side always gets its turn to bat.
Because of that no score is final until the last . In games with a clock the leader runs it down; here there is nothing to run down.
One pair against nine
Almost everything in baseball happens between two people: the pitcher and the batter. The other seven wait, and most pitches lead to nothing but an entry in the count.
So the is defined with unusual care — not "about waist high" but from the midpoint between the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants down to the hollow beneath the kneecap. Where that invisible boundary runs decides very nearly every play.
Ninety feet
The distance between bases is the one exact number in the geometry of the field. The code does not fix the outfield at all: the fence may stand anywhere.
So no two baseball fields are alike, and what is a home run at one park is caught at the wall in another.
Baseball Field
Under these rules: Ninety feet between bases; the code does not fix the size of the outfield.
A diamond with bases ninety feet apart and an outfield beyond.
The infield is fixed exactly — ninety feet between bases — and the outfield is not: the fence may stand anywhere, which is why no two baseball fields are alike.
Bat
Under these rules: One per batter.
A smooth rounded bat for striking the pitch.
The batter must meet a pitched ball with a round bat — that is, with a point rather than a face. Hence its reputation as the hardest act in sport.
Baseball
Under these rules: One ball in play.
A hard ball with a raised stitched seam.
The seam is not decoration: catching the air, it lets the pitcher spin the ball so that it changes course on the way to the batter.
Glove
Under these rules: One glove per fielder.
The leather glove of a fielder.
The ball is hard and travels fast, so it is caught with a glove rather than a hand. The catcher's and the first baseman's have shapes of their own.
The Official Baseball Rules
Players and field
Baseball is a game between two teams of nine players each, under the direction of a manager, played on an enclosed field under the jurisdiction of one or more umpires.
The bases are set so that ninety feet lie between them.
What each side is trying to do
The offensive team's objective is to have its batter become a runner, and its runners advance. The defensive team's is to prevent players from becoming runners, and to prevent their advance around the bases.
The run
When a batter becomes a runner and touches all bases legally, he scores one for his team.
Winning
The team scoring more runs by the end of the regulation game wins.
The strike zone
The strike zone is the area over home plate whose upper limit is a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants, and whose lower level is a line at the hollow beneath the kneecap.
A pitch in that zone that the batter misses or does not swing at is a strike. A pitch outside it, not swung at, is a ball.
The play
Three strikes put the batter out. Four balls give him first base.
A batted ball caught before it touches the ground puts the batter out. A runner is put out by being tagged off a base, or by a fielder holding the ball on a base the runner is forced to advance to.
Innings
Three outs end a half-inning and the sides change places. A game consists of nine innings.
A tie is settled by extra innings.
Sources
- Official Baseball Rules, 2025 Edition · Major League Baseball Open source
Glossary of terms
- Out
- The removal of an offensive player from the play. Three outs end a half-inning.
- Run
- A point. Scored when a runner has legally touched all the bases in order and reached home.
- Strike zone
- The area over home plate: above, the midpoint between the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants; below, the hollow beneath the kneecap.