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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- The layout of a baseball field and the equipment that players use
- The art of pitching, hitting, fielding, and baserunning
- The ins and outs of baseball statistics and a rundown of a baseball season
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The Baseball Field
Baseball is played on a baseball field. All baseball fields share certain standardized dimensions, though baseball fields are unique among sports fields in that they can also vary in certain aspects. Baseball fields from the high-school level to the professional Major League are all approximately the same size, whereas Little League fields for younger players are smaller. This guide focuses on baseball beyond Little League.
A baseball field can be split into two main parts: fair territory and foul territory.
Fair Territory on a Baseball Field
Most action in a baseball game takes place in fair territory, which has two parts: the infield and the outfield.
The Infield
The infield, also called the diamond, stretches from home plate to the edge of the infield dirt and contains the bases, base paths, pitcher’s mound, and batter’s box.
- Home plate: Home plate is a pentagon-shaped piece of rubberized plastic embedded in the dirt. When it’s a player’s turn to hit, he stands at home plate. The pitcher throws the ball over home plate, and batters try to hit the pitched ball with a bat. A team scores a run when one of its players circles the bases and steps on home plate. The home plate pentagon is 17" across on its longest edge, which faces the pitcher.
- Pitcher’s mound: The pitcher’s mound is a raised mound of dirt in the center of the infield, 60.5 feet from home plate (46 feet for Little League fields). A white rectangle called the rubber sits at the top of the mound. Pitchers stand with a foot on the rubber when they pitch.
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Batter’s box: The batter’s box is a box drawn in chalk on either side of home plate. Right-handed batters stand in the box to the left of home plate, whereas left-handed batters stand on the right. The pitcher can throw a pitch only when the batter is standing inside the batter’s box. Batters must stand inside the batter’s box; if a batter hits a ball while one or both of his feet are outside the box, the batter is called out automatically.
- Bases: Bases are three vinyl squares—first base, second base, and third base—filled with heavy-duty foam and anchored into place in the infield dirt. The three bases and home plate form a diamond. The distance between each base—from home plate to first base, first base to second base, and so on around the diamond—is 90 feet (60 feet in Little League). The bases are often called simply “first,” “second,” and “third.”
- Base paths: The base path is a three-foot-wide path between each base. Thin dirt paths mark the paths connecting home plate to first base and third base to home plate. The paths between first, second, and third are unmarked.
- Infield dirt: The infield dirt surrounds the bases and basepaths. The back edge of the infield dirt marks the boundary between the infield and the outfield.
The Outfield
The outfield is the expanse of grass behind the infield. It’s split into three general areas— left field, right field, and center field. The three regions of the outfield are named based on the point of view of a batter standing at home plate:
- Left field: Behind the base path between second base and third base
- Right field: Behind the base path between first base and second base
- Center field: Behind second base
The outfield is bordered by the infield dirt, the left and right field foul lines, and a fence or wall. The outfield wall is usually about 300–320 feet from home plate down the left and right field lines, and closer to 400 feet in center field. Unlike baseball infields, the outfields of different fields can be different shapes, and often have very different dimensions. For instance, the center field wall in Yankee Stadium (home to the New York Yankees) measures 408 feet from home plate, whereas the center field wall in Fenway Park (home to the Boston Red Sox) measures just under 390 feet.
Warning Track
When outfielders chase after fly balls, their eyes generally follow the flight of the ball, not the direction in which they’re running. To help protect outfielders from running headlong into the wall, professional baseball fields have a warning track, a narrow strip of dirt or gravel just in front of outfield walls. Outfielders can feel the warning track underfoot when they’re approaching the wall, which often prevents them from smacking into it.
Foul Territory on a Baseball Field
White chalk lines, called foul lines, extend from the batter’s box down the first and third base lines, past the bases, and all the way to the outfield wall, where they end in bright yellow vertical foul poles. The foul lines mark the boundaries between fair territory and foul territory. The lines themselves are part of fair territory, so if a batted ball lands on the lines, it’s fair, but the field to the left of the left-field foul line or to the right of the right-field foul line is foul.
Other Important Parts of the Stadium
Two important parts of professional stadiums aren’t part of the field:
- Bullpen: The bullpen is the area where pitchers stretch out and warm up their arms before entering a game. Stadiums have two bullpens, one for each team. Bullpens may be located either in enclosed areas behind the outfield fence or in foul territory behind first and third bases.
- Dugouts: Coaches and players who aren’t playing in the field sit in covered benches along the first and third base lines, called dugouts. When defensive players in the field get three outs, they return to their dugout to get ready to hit and vice versa.
Baseball Boundaries
Unlike other sports, the boundary between the baseball stadium that surrounds the field and the field itself is slightly fluid. Players can catch the ball even if they reach into the stands where fans sit, and fans sometimes reach out onto the field and illegally affect the ball that’s in play.
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