Thursday, April 20, 2006

Baseball Explained

Cricinfo has an article that explains cricket from a baseball point of view. link. The article suggests that it is from an "American" point of view, but the correct terminology would be from a Baseball point of view.

Ian Chappell used to play both cricket and baseball, though he's more famous for playing cricket. Apparently, cricket was the summer sport and baseball the winter sport down under.

Let's see if I can explain baseball from a cricket point of view.
  1. Every game has nine innings. Unlike test cricket where there are 2 innings per side, each cricket innings is called a half-innings in Baseball.
  2. Like cricket there is pitcher who "pitches" the ball and a batter who tries to score a run.
  3. There are 4 bases - 1st base, 2nd base, 3rd base and home base. If the batter hits the ball, he has to run. In case he doesn't make it to any of the bases in time, he's run out in the same fashion as cricket. Once the batter reaches a base, he can choose to stay there and the next batter comes in. This continues until the first batter goes through all the bases to reach home base. At this time a run is scored
  4. If 3 batters are out then the half innings closes and the other team comes on field to bat. This continues for 9 innings and the team with the higher score wins.
  5. There are no wickets in baseball, only strikes. A strike occurs when a batter swings and misses the ball. 3 strikes and the batter is out.
  6. Unlike cricket, there are only some areas that a batter can hit the ball. In case, he hits it to an area out of bounds then the ball is called foul. 3 fouls and the batter is out
  7. If the batter hits the ball outside the ground, similar to a sixer, then he gets to go around all the bases for free. This is called a home run and it earns 1 run. If there are already batters in other bases, all of them get to complete their home run and each one earns a run. If there are batters at the 1st, 2nd and 3rd bases, and the current batter hits a home run, 4 runs are scored.
  8. Also unlike cricket, multiple batters can be run out at the same time. This is called double or triple play.
More information on Wikipedia.

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