Guide to Baseball for Peeps Who Don't Know

The season is about to start guys... Get ready!

I know all of you guys want me to talk about basketball. I mean, that’s the season we’re in right now. But today? I’m going to probably bore you out with this one. The main thing I’m doing today is trying to get you interested in all of this. Baseball is played around the world. Football is only played in the US. I guess that’s the first nugget…

Simplest Stuff

9 players on a team. 2 teams. The field is shaped like a diamond. Both of these teams take turns hitting and fielding.

What does the hitting team need to do? Hit it away from the players on the field (preferably out of the park). If they hit the ball, they can get on base, which is another thing you want to do. If you circle all the bases and touch home base LEGALLY, you get a run.

What does the team on defense need to do? Prevent batters from becoming runners, and prevent runners advancing around the bases.

Both teams switch back and forth between batting & fielding. One turn of batting = half of an inning. 2 halves of an inning = 1 inning. There are 9 innings in a baseball game.

Most games end after the ninth inning, but if scores are tied at that point, extra innings are usually played.

3 strikes to get an out. 4 balls to get a walk.

Until 2022, baseball had no time regulations, and that’s probably why some games went to 4 hrs and 37 min. Pitchers have 15 seconds between pitches when there are no baserunners (person/people on base) and 20 seconds when there is at least one baserunner (a person on base). Additionally, the batter will have seven seconds to be in the stance, ready to hit, otherwise a strike will be called. The clock starts when the pitcher gets the ball and the catcher and batter are ready.

Adding on to Simplest Stuff

As many people know, each team plays/represents a city. The team that is playing in their own stadium is the home team. The home team always fields first, and the away team always hits first.

If it is the 9th inning. The away team finishes batting its side and the home team is winning, the home team doesn’t need to bat again because even if it doesn’t score runs or if it does score runs, the home team will still win.

Any other questions? Just put it in the comments section or email me at sportssquare.substack.com.

How to get a strike?

If you swing and miss or if you don’t swing and the ball is in the strike zone.

Most Controversial Part of Baseball

The strike zone.

The strike zone is a box where, if a baseball is pitched, it should be called a strike. But…

The umpires.

You know how in football, people always complain about the referees throwing flags!? It is especially important.

In baseball, it is the same thing. I mean, look at this!

We’re only looking at this from the batters’ perspective. What about the pitchers’?

The MLB is getting Robo-Umps soon, though. How do we know this? They’re trying it out in the minor leagues. But, what the heck is that?

Minor Leagues

The MLB has a lot of different layers to it. The people you watch on TV? Those guys are pros. But, many people don’t know… 60 more people are trying to compete for those 12 position player spots, so that spot is sacred.

Why is this number so high for one team? That’s because there are 4 divisions of minor leagues. The minor leagues are like a development stage and if you succeed, you get to the pros. If you don’t? Well, that’s why baseball is the hardest sport to go pro.

It starts with Rookie. The people who have this classification play a shortened season of about 60 games, and it is based on two US leagues. The Arizona League and the Gulf Coast League. This is for players to show off their skills and no sales are made for the teams.

After this is Single-A. Part 1 of the A divisions. Most of the people here are a mix of rookie players & first-year players.

Part 2 of the A division is High-A. It is the advanced part of the A division. This level is a second or third promotion if you start in the rookie league, but many high-drafted players, start here.

Double-A. There are three conferences in this league. Eastern, Southern, and Texas leagues. Many players jump from here to the majors immediately, skipping Triple-A. The next level & the last level of the minor leagues. Very few players will be placed here to start, and these people are mostly people from foreign countries.

Triple-A. Oh, yeah. In this league, there are 2 conferences. The International League and the Pacific Coast League. Most of the people here are in a team’s 40-man roster. This means they could be promoted to the pros without the team having to make any moves. Some players are career minor league players. Why? If you’re in the minor leagues, you can still become a millionaire in career earnings.

Leagues. Olympic Sport?

The Olympics are coming soon, just to put that on your radar.

This sport is played all around the world. We have subscribers all around the world as well, but the majority comes from the USA, so we’re going to hit that up real quick. The more we grow, the more the article will get updated, so don’t worry about that.

Here’s a bit of Wikipedia.

In Major League Baseball (MLB), the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, teams are divided into the National League (NL) and American League (AL), each with three divisions: East, West, and Central. The MLB champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series. The top level of play is similarly split in Japan between the Central and Pacific Leagues and in Cuba between the West League and East League. The World Baseball Classic, organized by the World Baseball Softball Confederation, is the major international competition of the sport and attracts the top national teams from around the world. Baseball was played at the Olympic Games from 1992 to 2008, and was reinstated in 2020.

Positions

Every single person playing on the field hits other than the pitcher. There used to be a rule in the NL where the pitcher could hit, but they have now changed that, and the NL is doing what the AL was always doing. Having a Designated Hitter. This person doesn't play any field position but only hits.

Many people sit on the bench, either taking the day off (as the MLB has a 162-game season) or waiting to get subbed in. Once you get subbed in, the person who subbed out cannot come back to the game.

Regular Terms and Terms Commentators & I Use

I’m going to put a few basics here, but I’ll share a link to another source, so you can see even more.

1-2-3 inning: An inning in which a pitcher faces only three batters and none safely reaches a base. "Three up, three down."

No hitter: The starting pitcher allows no hits, but allows a walk.

Walk: The pitcher doesn’t throw right 4 times, and the hitter gets a free base.

Perfect Game: This is when the pitcher does not let a person on base. This means no hits & strikeouts.

ERA: This means earned run average. Example: Bob, the pitcher, allows 1 run his first game. In his second game, he allows 3 runs. What is the average? 2, so he would have a 2.00 ERA

There are so many baseball terms, that I can’t put them all here. But, you can check them out here.

Baseball Terms Xtra

I hope you’ve understood the basic part of the game. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at sportssquare@substack.com or in the comments below.