The question is asked, how to play baseball? Well that's a very wide question, and we could
talk for days on how to play baseball because there's some intricacies of the game itself.
But in short let's explain it this way. There are nine players, nine on defense, nine on
offense. On offense the nine players must bat in the same batting order each and every
time. So if you occupy the first place in the batting order, each time you come to bat
you would bat after the ninth place hitter. On defense we have nine players. On the pitcher's
mound, directly behind me, we have the pitcher. The pitcher's the guy that puts the ball in
play by throwing the ball to the catcher. The catcher is placed behind home plate and
is the only person that plays in foul territory. He's usually in the squatting position to
receive the ball into the strike zone which we'll talk about in a moment. The other players
are located two on the right side of the infield or the dirt area, one at first, one at second,
they're called the first basemen and second basemen respectively. And two more players
on the left side of the infield, a shortstop which plays near second base, and the third
basemen who plays near third base. The other three players are the left fielder, the center
fielder, and the right fielder. All of these players play on defense until three outs are
recorded. Outs are recorded, in this fashion. The pitcher throws the ball to the catcher.
The strike zone is an imaginary zone that's a rectangle. The outside part of the rectangle
is the outside part of the plate, the inside part is the inside part of the plate which
is basically eighteen inches wide. The top of the strike zone is basically the chest
of the batter, and the lower part of the zone is basically the knees batter, so everything
that passes in this rectangle would be recorded as the strike if the umpire deems it to be
in that zone. Each batter gets three strikes and then if he doesn't put the ball in play,
he's declared out, whether he takes the ball or whether he swings at the ball. An out is
recorded, you get three swings per batter, there's also something called a ball. If the
pitcher fails to throw the ball in that strike zone rectangle it's recorded as a ball and
that's at the umpire's discretion. Once four balls are recorded, the batter is awarded
first base on a base on balls, so he goes unimpeded and unchallenged to first base.
Each offensive team gets three outs, outs can be recorded by strike outs as we've described,
or by balls that caught in the air by a defensive player, or if a defensive player catches a
ball that has struck the ground, if he throws it to the base, the guy is going to, and it's
a force play where the guy has to run to that base, and the first case here being first,
then that is an out. If the ball beats the runner to the base, and the first basement
is in contact with the base when he catches the ball, then that's recorded as an out.
Each offensive team gets three outs before they are - they're half of the inning over.
Once three outs are recorded the defensive team now becomes the offensive team and the
offensive team takes the field, and that's called an inning. Each team - or each game
is nine innings, and as long as the score is not tied, the team with the most runs at
the end of nine innings is declared the winner of the game. Should the game be tied, then
they play extra innings until one team is one run in front of the other team and therefore
is rewarded the game as the winning team. And basically and in short, that's how you
play the game of baseball.