Nine players a side, four bases, and three outs per turn
Baseball pits two nine-player teams in alternating batting and fielding. A play starts when a player pitches; the offense tries to reach base safely and circle home for runs while the defense records outs. Its modern form took shape in North America from older English bat-and-ball games.
Baseball is a bat-and-ball game between two teams of nine that swap between batting and fielding. Each play begins when the fielding side's pitcher throws toward home plate and the batter tries to hit the ball. The batting side's first aim is to get a player safely to first base, either by hitting and beating the throw or because the pitcher keeps throwing out of reach.
Runners score by touching all four bases in order, counterclockwise around the square diamond, and the side with more runs wins. A team bats until the fielders record three outs; one turn each makes an inning, and games usually run nine innings, seven in high school. Foul lines run from home plate at 45-degree angles, marking a 90-degree wedge of fair territory, with the infield around the bases and the outfield beyond.
The ball is about the size of an adult fist, roughly 23 centimetres around, with a rubber or cork core wound in yarn and wrapped in white cowhide with red stitching. Bats are traditionally one solid piece of wood, about 6.4 centimetres thick at the hitting end, and adults usually swing ones around 86 centimetres long. Fielders wear padded leather gloves shaped for their positions, and every batter wears a helmet. The pitcher pushes off a rubber slab on the mound while the catcher crouches behind home plate.
The game grew from bat-and-ball games played in England by the mid-eighteenth century and carried to North America by immigrants; its role as an escape during the Civil War and the Great Depression helped make it an American emblem. In Major League Baseball, the top level in the United States and Canada, the National and American Leagues each have East, Central, and West divisions, and the playoffs end in the World Series.
Source: Baseball
