Simplified baseball rules
These simplified baseball rules provide a very basic summary of baseball rules as well as the basics of softball rules. complete summary of the rules is on the baseball page.
A single game is played by two teams, who, during the course of a game, alternate playing offense and defense. A "season" is played over the course of many months by a group of teams, called a league. Each team in the league plays all the other teams in the league a fixed number of times, though it is not always in round robin format. At the end of the season, the team with the most wins is the winner of the regular season.
The goal of a game is to score more points, which are called "runs" in the language of baseball, than the other team. Each team, usually composed of 9 or 10 players, attempts to score runs while on offense, by completing a tour of the bases, which form a square-shaped figure called a "diamond." A tour starts at home plate and proceeds counter-clockwise. See the image below.
There are four basic tools of baseball: the bat, the ball, the mitt, and the field.
- The bat is an offensive tool, either made of wood or aluminum depending on the game being played. It is a long, hard stick, about 2 inches (5 centimeters) in diameter, except at the handle, which is about 1-inch (2.5 centimeters) diameter.
- The ball is white for baseball (though other colors can be used) with red lacing about the size of a fist. Softball uses a white or yellow ball (usually) with white lacing about the size of two fists.
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- The glove or mitt is a defensive tool, made of leather, worn on the players hand to aide in catching the ball. It takes various shapes to meet the unique needs of the defensive position of the player.
- The game is played on a field, whose dimensions vary depending on the age of the players. However, every field has a diamond, with bases at its corners, that the offensive players circumnavigate, as mentioned above. That part of the field close to the bases is called the infield, and that part distant from the bases is called the outfield.
Baseball is played in a series of (usually 9) "innings", each of which is divided into two halves (called "top" and "bottom" in that order: hence the phrase bottom of the ninth). In each half-inning, the offensive team attempts to score runs until three of its players are put "out" (removed from play by actions of the defensive team; discussed below). After the third out, the teams switch roles for the other half of the inning. The "home" team plays defense first, and so plays defense in the top of every inning and offense in the bottom of every inning.
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