Contents
The Baseball Field
Baseball Equipment
The Basic Rules of Baseball
Pitching in Baseball
Fielding in Baseball
Hitting in Baseball
Baserunning in Baseball
Baseball Statistics
Major League Baseball
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Baseball Equipment
Baseball can be played with just a few essential pieces of equipment, which have changed very little since the game was invented in the mid-19th century.
Baseballs
All baseballs used in Major League Baseball are manufactured by the Rawlings Company and are made according to precise specifications in order to ensure that they all perform in the same way. A baseball has a core of cork and rubber and is covered with two pieces of leather that are stitched together with wool thread.
Mitts and Gloves
Every defensive player, called a fielder, wears a leather mitt or glove on his non-throwing hand. Though the terms are often used interchangeably, mitts and gloves aren’t the same—baseball gloves have individual fingers, whereas mitts (like mittens) don’t. Mitts and gloves have a leather pocket between the thumb and pointer finger in which players catch the ball, and are designed for specific positions.
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Catcher’s mitt: Round in shape, with heavy padding and deep pockets, catcher’s mitts are designed to withstand the stress of catching pitches that are often thrown in excess of 90 miles per hour.
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First baseman’s mitt: Longer than a catcher’s mitt and with a wider yet shallower pocket, this mitt helps the first baseman catch balls thrown by other fielders and scoop up balls that are thrown low.
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Outfielder’s glove: Generallylonger and with a bigger pocket than an infielder’s glove, an outfielder’s glove is designed to give outfielders the longest reach possible to help them catch fly balls.
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Infielder’s gloves: Shorterand with a smaller pocket than an outfielder’s glove, an infielder’s glove is designed so that infielders can quickly retrieve fielded balls from the pocket when throwing runners out.
Bats
Major League Baseball, the professional baseball league in the United States, requires that all players use wooden bats. Outside of professional baseball, aluminum bats are far more common because they’re cheaper and break less often than wooden bats. Many people argue that aluminum bats are more dangerous than wooden bats because the ball springs off an aluminum bat so quickly that fielders have no time to react. Even so, most Little Leagues, high schools, and colleges continue to use aluminum bats due to the cost savings.
Wooden bats are carved from a single-solid piece of ash or maple. All bats have a tapered design with a thin handle and a thick barrel where the bat is meant to hit the ball. No bat can be longer than 42" (107 cm) or have a diameter wider than 2 3/4" (7 cm).
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