Baseball for the Utterly Confused - Softcover

RANDALL

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0071634746 ISBN 13: 9780071634748

Verlag: McGraw Hill, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

Play Ball!
Everything baseball-from the popular Utterly Confused Series

What's a foul ball?
Or a swinging third strike?
New fans, parents, and first-time coaches need no longer be Utterly Confused about baseball, as the popular series introduces the basics of the sport in a fun and easy-to-follow guide.

Peppered with big league interviews and examples, Baseball for the Utterly Confused cuts through the jargon and history to deliver a complete guide to everything baseball. From little league to the majors, this informative guide brings the most casual fan up to speed on what's going on on the field and off of it.

• Provides a foundation for understanding the game through strategy, rules and scoring, statistics, major league players and more
• Includes easy-to-reference icons throughout the book that walk you through the basics and highlight key situations
• Features interviews with major league notables and a special chapter on baseball history: The Golden Age, Divisional Baseball, The Dead Ball Era and more

From the intricacies of the game, its rules, rivalries, strategies, and standings, those new to the game won't feel like they're in over their heads. This book will break it all down.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ed Randall is the host of "Talking Baseball"each Sunday morning on WFAN and is the author of MoreTales From the Yankee Dugout.

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Baseball for the Utterly CONFUSED

By Ed Randall

The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Copyright © 2010 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-07-163474-8

Contents

Chapter One

Rules of the Game

Let's start with the basics. Two teams of at least nine players, led by a manager (usually dressed in uniform, in charge of the players and several supporting coaches—hitting, pitching, bullpen, first-base, and third-base, among others), will play each other for a minimum of five innings. Each team's objective is to win the game by outscoring its opponent. (Hello! Please tell me you already knew this and weren't that utterly confused!)

Sounds simple, right?

Three things to consider right off the bat:

1. That team of 9 is sometimes a team of 10, as the designated hitter has unfortunately taken root in much of the baseball world outside of the National League (more on the atrocity that is the DH later). Major-league rosters also have a bench, a rotation, and a bullpen, for 25 total players in uniform and eligible to play. A typical alignment would include nine position players, five starting pitchers, and six to seven relief pitchers (including a long man, capable of pitching several innings; specialists for lefty and righty batters; a closer, charged with shutting the door on the opposing team in its final at bat; and, ideally, one or two setup men, capable of maintaining a lead and acting as a bridge between the starter and the closer). The other five players might include a DH or power bat to come off the bench in key moments, a backup catcher (squatting for nine-plus innings as foul balls and barreling base runners bounce off your body takes a toll on the starting catcher, making backup a must—especially for day games after night games), a utility infielder (capable of playing multiple positions), and a fourth outfielder (in case of injury, as a defensive replacement, or as an additional pinch hitter). Of those four to five bench spots, general managers will try to ensure that among them they have both lefty and righty bats, to counter the pitching moves of opposing managers, as well as a player with speed, in case a pinch runner is called for.

2. The number of innings played is dependent on the level of play, the score, and the weather. Everyone knows that a major-league baseball game is nine innings long (eight and a half if the home team is winning going into the bottom of the ninth), but Little League games can be six to seven innings. Tie games usually go extra innings (more on that in a moment).

Then there's the matter of an official game. In major-league baseball, a game is official after five innings (four and a half if the home team has a lead going into the bottom of the fifth). So, if the heavens open up after five innings have been played, and there's no sign of the rain's ever ending, the team with the lead can get the win. If fewer than five innings are in the books, and there's no chance of the game's being resumed, then it's a do-over, to be played again some other day (meaning that the stats recorded during those first four innings will never find their way into the record book—just ask Roger Maris ... more on him later).

It gets complicated when rain or some other circumstance either stops a tied game or stops a game in which a tie has just been broken. If, let's say, after five innings of play the visiting team pulls ahead in the top of the sixth, and before the home team can play three outs' worth of baseball in the bottom half of the same inning, Noah gets on the PA system to tell the lucky fans in attendance that his ark is parked in section G of the lot out back and is about to set sail, then the top half of the inning is scrubbed from the box score, and the game reverts back to where it was at the end of the last full inning of play. As the game was tied at that point (or if the scenario didn't play out exactly as described and a tied game was stopped), the game could be suspended, to be completed at a future date.

3. While major-league baseball is designed to be played until a team ends an inning with a lead (the 2002 All-Star Game and spring training exhibitions notwithstanding), college baseball and other leagues have produced ties on occasion.

The Field

The baseball diamond is configured with 90 feet between consecutive bases, 60 feet 6 inches (and 10 inches off the ground) separating the pitcher's mound from home plate, and 127 feet 33/8 inches from home plate to second base and from first base to third base. The MLB rules also suggest that "the line from home base through the pitcher's plate to second base shall run East-Northwest." See Figure 1.1.

The rest of the field consists of boxes for the batter, for the catcher, and for the first- and third-base coaches, as well as a designated area for the on-deck batter. Foul lines run from home plate through first and third base, and the distances that each one spans (along with the fences in the outfield) vary from park to park (but can be no less than 250 feet at the major-league level). MLB does recommend approximately 320 feet down the line and 400 feet to center field, with 60 feet or more separating home plate and the infield from the stands.

Talking Baseball

Baseball has a language all its own, and to understand the sport and its rules, you'll need to be able to talk the talk before you can walk the walk. Here are some of the terms you'll hear while watching a game, along with their definitions.

Balk. The balk rule prevents pitchers from trying to be too sneaky when it comes to runners on base. It basically states that a pitcher is not allowed to do anything that would be considered disruptive to his motion. A balk is typically called when a pitcher either fails to come to a complete stop before delivering the baseball home (the stop indicates the beginning of the actual pitch) or fails to step off the mound before checking the runner (throwing to a base). When a balk is committed, each runner advances one base.

Ball. Any given pitch is, for the most part, a strike or a ball (with some rarities and exceptions as noted later). A ball is a pitch outside of the strike zone at which the batter does not swing. It is the first number in a standard count, so at 3–2, the batter has three balls and two strikes on him—four balls produce a walk. (I threw many of these in my amateur career. Whereas the great control pitchers could, as they say in the game, hit a gnat in the butt, I was the opposite.)

Base Coach. Each team has two uniformed base coaches while the team is up at bat, a first-base coach and a third-base coach. The base coaches direct the runners.

Base on Balls. Also known as a walk and abbreviated BB. When a pitcher delivers four balls outside of the strike zone during any at bat, the batter is awarded first base. (As with Warren Buffett, I gave out many awards in my time.)

Battery. The battery comprises the pitcher and the catcher—who are sometimes referred to as "battery mates" when spoken of as a pair.

Bunt. In key situations, instead of swinging for the fences, a batter might square off, face the pitcher with his bat out in front of him, and tap the ball so it takes a slow roll along the infield. Bunting the ball is an effective way to advance a runner (giving up an out to get your man from first to second base or from second to third) or take advantage of an unprepared fielder.

Catcher's Box. This is the area behind home plate designated for the catcher...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: McGraw Hill
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0071634746
• ISBN 13: 9780071634748
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 241
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: GPSR Kontakt; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland