The year is 2009. It’s summer. Too hot to go outside and too bored to do anything else, nine-year-old me decides to try to watch TV. I trudge downstairs (hoping for something good on Nickelodeon or Disney) and just as I am about to plop down on the couch, my dad swoops in, steals the remote, flips to ESPN and puts on the first baseball game he can find. An avid lifelong New York Yankees fan, my dad watches as much of the sport as he possibly can. Oddly, baseball to middle-aged dads is like binge-watching anything on Netflix and getting really attached to the main character or characters, only to have them live a perfect life or die horribly three seasons in. To a nine-year-old (and probably to some other age cohorts) the idea of watching a game where a ball is hit and thrown for two to three hours sounds more tedious than watching paint dry. Incidentally, I remember literally watching paint dry that summer, to the buzz of the MLB Network on TV in the background. But I digress.
Courtesy: Houston Chronicle
After countless summers crushed by the greatest American pastime, I think that it’s finally time to sit down and learn about the author of my unending summer boredom. Ten years ages a person and while I still know little about the sport because of years of bitter stubbornness and just not caring (which is probably warranted!) it is time for me to learn something new, as baseball season fast approaches and new opportunities for spring game days arise. Hopefully, my lifelong aversion to America’s great game will be overcome, with the help of some attractive baseball players sprinkled into the mix to make it more tolerable.
The timing of my curiosity is just right- college baseball season is coming up. I’m looking forward to fixing up (for once) and going to games to replace the hole our sad football season left in my heart but I’d like to know what’s going on when I go to watch so that I don’t just guess who’s winning and why by looking at the scoreboard.
So, what exactly is baseball?
Ok, this is an obvious question. However, for the sake of absolute clarity, I googled it. It’s a game comprised of two teams of nine players each on a diamond-shaped field of four bases. The field consists of two zones- the infield and the outfield (this part is pretty self-explanatory.) One team hits, while the other team is on the field. Each team wants to score the most points during nine innings (or rounds) of play.
(Fun fact: the 7th inning stretch, a time-honored tradition, was trademarked by President William Howard Taft. He probably almost fell asleep during a game. Taft also started the tradition of the first pitch at games. The pitch is usually thrown by a celebrity or other notable person in attendance.)
Courtesy: Vanity Fair
The visiting team always bats first, while the home team is on the field, trying to catch balls hit by the visitors or to throw the balls to the bases where visiting team members will try to wait. A batter must make it to first, second and third bases, as well as to home plate, to score a run (or a point). This sounds easy in theory but the players on base rely on the batter to hit so that they can run the rest of the bases. If the player hits the ball over the infield, over the outfield AND over the fence, the hit is considered a home run and the player(s) runs all of the bases with no fear of being out.
That’s the easy part. Like school, life and ascending rounds of HQ, baseball becomes much more complicated after the basics are over.
Each batter has three tries, or strikes, to hit the ball successfully (as immortalized by “Take Me out to the Ball Game”, a song that may be stuck in my head forever now.) Each hit is classified as either a ball or a strike. A ball is a successful hit, a strike is not. Once the ball has been hit, there are several outcomes, including:
Walk- when the pitcher throws an unhittable ball four times, the batter automatically gets to go to first base without the possibility of getting out. He doesn’t even have to run to first. Save that cardio for later, bud!
Hit by pitch- when the pitcher hits the batter with the ball (not purposely), the batter automatically gets to go to first base. When the average speed of a baseball is upwards of 90 mph, this isn’t a W.
Single: The batter hits the ball just far enough to have time to get to first base.
Double: The batter hits the ball just far enough to have time to get to second base.
Triple: The batter hits the ball just far enough to have time to get to third base.
Players on bases have an option to steal bases as well (just like playing kickball in third grade with those people who got way too into it). This is a risky option but it can change the course of a game.
If you’ve ever been subjected to the classic 1993 movie The Sandlot while sitting in the pastel waiting room of a dentist’s office, you know that baseball can bring groups of bored 10-year-old boys together. However, watching baseball is more than just knowing rules and statistics about players (the numbers game is a can of worms that I would prefer not to open. RPI? batting average? Leave that to statistics majors.) Now that I know how baseball is supposed to work, I can actually get into the game that I’ve been subjected to my entire life. While you probably won’t catch me watching the MLB network anytime soon, you will definitely find me at Dick Howser Stadium whenever the Noles play at home this semester.
Courtesy: Giphy
Make sure to check out the Noles this season! They opened the season at home against Xavier on Friday, Feb. 16 at 4 p.m. The full season schedule can be found on their website.