Sports are a pretty hard thing to grasp if you do not know what is going on. A common stereotype I hear all the time is that women do not know anything about sports. Well, I am here to prove that wrong and create a guide to understanding some of America’s favorite sports at the same time.

Today, I want to talk about Baseball. This is America’s pastime, and it’s only right with the season just starting to try to explain this sport so it is easy to follow for those who have no clue what is going on.

First off, I am pretty sure everyone knows what a baseball field looks like, but in the off chance someone hasn’t, I’ll give a quick over view. The baseball field consists of a diamond shaped are with 4 bases on each point of the diamond. In the middle of the diamond is the pitchers mound, where the pitcher stands of course. This is known as the infield. The rest of the area outside the diamond is called the outfield. So now that you have a very rough description of what the field looks like it is time to move on to the rest of the game.

There are nine positions on the field at all times.

In the infield there is the pitcher, the catcher (stands behind home plate), first baseman, second baseman, third baseman, and shortstop.

In the outfield are the left fielder, center fielder, and right fielder.

So now for the point of the game, which is to get the most amount of points (runs) by running around all of the bases in order and then ending back at home plate. The opposing team who is on the field tries to prevent the runs by catching the ball and throwing it to the base before the runner gets there.

Now this is where it gets a bit tricky, I wont go into all the crazy lingo and what not that is involved because I want to make this as easy to follow as possible.

So the team who is on defense is the team with the nine players out on the field. The offensive team is the one who is batting. How this works is one member of the team walks up to home plate to bat. The pitcher then throws a pitch that the batter then tries to hit. If the batter was unsuccessful then they receive one strike. You are allowed three strikes before you strike out which at the point means you are done batting and the next person gets a chance to bat. The team on offense can receive up to three outs before the teams switch. Baseball is unlike many sports being that they cannot score while playing defense.

Something else you can get while batting besides a hit or a strike is called a ball. This happens when the pitcher messes up and either throws the ball too far away or too close to the batter. The batter can receive up to 4 balls, and when that number is reached they are awarded a free base, which is called a walk.

Another way to “get on base” is if the pitcher hits you with the ball. In a way this is a win/lose situation because on one hand you get a free base, which can ultimately give you runs. One the other hand, however, I don’t think it seems really fun to get hit by a 90 mile per hour ball. That defiantly will leave a mark.

Baseball doesn’t run on halves or quarters like most sports but they run on innings. The teams take turns batting and when each of them has gone through three outs an inning comes to an end. In baseball there are nine innings total. The game ends when all nine innings are done then the team who has the most runs wins.

So I dare you all to take your newfound knowledge and go to a baseball game. Maybe bring up baseball to that cutie sitting next to you in class who always wears a bunch of Cleveland Indians gear and impress them with your knowledge of baseball, even if its limited to what you just read.