Bill, what is the most popular American sport?
Without a doubt it is baseball. There is large industry build up around this sport, and kids already in grade school are involved in playing it, and becoming enthusiasts.
Is baseball mostly a spectator sport, or a participatory one?
Both. There are amateur leagues and teams at any age levels, involving all segments of the society playing on summer evenings and the weekends. Baseball is also the most popular spectator sport. While professional football teams play about 20 games a season, baseball teams play over 120 games. There are lots of games even weekday afternoons, and although they don't fill the stadiums, there are enough supporters that the teams make money.
Do women get involved?
Oh yes. Lot's of women are ardent supporters of pro teams, and they also have leagues in which they play. But kids in the little leagues are the biggest enthusiasts. They have their their favorite players, and since each well known player has his picture card kids trade, exchange and buy and sell these cards. These cards not only have the players picture, but also the most important statistics of the player.
Statistics? baseball
Oh, yes baseball is game of statistics. All sorts of individual, team, league and historical statistics are constantly kept and discussed during the game. Of course there is lot's of time for this, since the game is fairly slow, giving lots of opportunity to extracurricular conversation.
What is the essence of the game?
Both teams have active 11 players, the name of whom has to be given just prior to the game to the officials. Substitutions are possible, within strictly defined rules. The officials in this game are called umpires, and there is about 5 of them, each with a special area of supervision, all dressed in black even in the summer heat. Baseball is a non-contact sport, with rare exception players do not ever touch each other. But when they touch it is very important more about that later.
The game is played around four concrete blocks or bases, which are laid out in a diamond shape. In the middle of the diamond there is an elevated area the mound, where the key player is working. This man is called the pitcher he is the one who starts each play by tossing the ball. Let's go back to the teams. Each member of the team has defensive and offensive roll. The defensive team members -those who can not score at a given time- are the above mentioned pitcher who tosses the ball toward home plate (the base plate of the diamond). The offensive players, 3 or more in a row attempt to hit the ball, and while it is in the air he has to run from base to base and attempt to run around the entire diamond configuration, while touching each base. That is a score or a run. The other defensive players are strategically placed around the field and try to prevent the runner from scoring.
The game is played in 9 innings without time limit. In each inning each team has a chance to the offensive and defensive. The guest team gets to bat being on the offense first. As the points are posted for each inning on top of each other, that is the top of the inning. The team has at least 3 chances to put a runner on, that is having started to run through the bases. Each player in the inning has three chances to hit the ball. If he misses it is called a strike, and after three misses he strikes out, and the next hitter takes over. When three players strikes out, that half of the inning is over and the teams change roles. Now the home team get to hit the ball or bat and attempt to score. This is the bottom half of the inning.
OK I am with you so far. What if player after player hits the ball,runs and scores?
They continue the inning until finally three players are struck out. So any team may score any number of runs in an inning. Some inning may last only a few minutes, when three players strike out one right after another. On the other hand, an inning may last for over an hour, if there are lots of hits of the ball and consequently lots of runs. The record is 16 runs in one inning for a team!
As I see, the pitcher could just throw the ball so that the batter could never hit it. Than they could never score.
Not quite. The ball has to be aimed at a very narrow space in from of the catcher -the helper of the pitcher- and there is an umpire who calls the ball in or out. If the pitcher throws four balls (not necessarily consecutively) that are outside of this imaginary box, the batter gets to walk, or advance to the first base, as though he had hit the ball. So the pitcher has to be careful to serve up balls that go into the box, but do it so as to make the batter less likely to be able to hit it. So he tries to throw the ball that it curves down, or slides sideways, or is very fast. Curiously the catcher, who crouches behind the home plate and just behind the batter, before every pitch gives secret signs to the pitcher, with his free hand between his thighs. These signs tell the pitcher what kind of ball to serve up. He may accept it by nodding his head, or reject it by shaking his head. There are also coaches at each base (except home base) who give signals. So when you see one of these coaches scratching their head, touching his nose, ear, lips, arms etc all the while giving secret instructions.
Now this is getting really complicated.
That is OK. I have tickets for tomorrow afternoon. I will explain further as the game progresses. As you can tell the game is very slow. Action is episodic, when the pitcher finally throws a ball. If it is a hit some guy tries to catch it, to prevent the batter to get to a base. And than just wait, wait, wait until another pitch comes. There is lots of commentary in the meantime by the announcer, who will recite all sorts of statistics of the players, for this game, previous games, for the entire season, for his lifetime. They have to do something to keep the spectators interest. There is also plenty of time to socialize with your partner, or the people sitting around you, or buy and eats the standard frank (frankfurter=hot dog) and gulp down plenty of cold beer in a sunny summer afternoon. Baseball is social game.
I hear so much about the World Series. When is that?
First what is it, or what it is not. It is not World, since only American teams compete in it. This is in spite of the quite a worldwide interest in baseball. The high school level World series is truly World, and often a non American team wins it. In professional the World is only the United States. The two dominant leagues each have their best teams play for the honor two play against the other leagues best team at the end of the season in October. This is the World Series, best of seven games is the winner. Forget trying to get tickets for it. But all games are on television for free. Hundreds of millions of people around the world watch it too. So it may truly be World series!
