How to Play Baseball

Series Summary

Baseball, the great American pastime, is actually considered the official sport of the United States, though it is enjoyed by many fans in several countries throughout the world. Developed in the late 18th century, the game of baseball was probably derived from older British bat and ball games and then brought over to America. Today, baseball teams consist of nine or 10 players and a pitcher. In some leagues, the pitcher is the ninth player and must bat for the team, while other leagues allow a designated hitter--a 10th player--to bat in place of the pitcher. Baseball enjoys great popularity as both a professional spectator sport and an amateur or youth league sport. In this free video series, get instructions on playing and coaching baseball from a professional baseball player. First, he explains the basics of baseball, how to measure baseball-glove size, how to pick a baseball bat and how to pitch a baseball. Next, he talks about determining the right bat size for a player, buying a baseball bat and coaching baseball. Finally, learn about gripping a sinker-ball pitch, switch hitting and hitting a home run.

Video Transcript

"The question is asked, how to play baseball? Well that's a very wide question, and we can talk for days on how to play baseball, because there's so many intricacies of the game itself. But in short, let me explain it this way. There's 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 pitchers mound directly behind me, we have the pitcher. The pitcher is 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 and one at second, they're called the first baseman, and second baseman respectively, and two more players on the left side of the infield, the short stop, which plays near second base, and the third baseman who plays near third base. The other three players are the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. All 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, is the inside part of the plate, which is basically 18 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 a strike, if the empire 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 fail to throw the ball in that strike zone rectangle, it's recorded as a ball, and that's at the empires 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 are caught in the air by defensive player, or if a defensive player catches the ball that has struck the ground, if he throws it to the base the guy is going to, and it's a forced 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 baseman 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- the half of the inning is 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 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."