Talk:Baseball/temp/article
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Notice: This is a temporary page that was used for a rewrite of Baseball. The rewritten content has now been moved there. Please make any changes on the main article. This page remains primarily to preserve the edit history of the rewrite.
The following text by User:Dominus from to be merged into the article text below (see Talk:baseball for permission to use this text under the GFDL):
If the pitcher hits the batter with a pitched ball, the batter may advance to first base as if he has been given a walk. If an umpire believes that a pitcher hit a batter purposefully, he will usually warn both teams, and any pitcher who subsequently hits a batter is likely to be ejected from the game by the umpire. The last batter to be killed by a pitched ball was Ray Chapman, struck in the head by a pitch from Carl Mays in 1920. In the 1950s Tony Conigliaro was seriously injured when he was hit in the head with a pitch; since then batters have been required to wear helmets.
If the batter hits the ball into foul territory, he is not allowed to run to first base. He is charged with a strike, unless he has two strikes already. You can't strike out on a foul hit, but you can strike out on a foul bunt (i.e., with two strikes, a bunt into foul ground is a strikeout).
Another common situation is that the runner will take a lead off his base, moving fifteen feet or so towards the next base. He is liable to be put out if someone tags him with the ball, but the defenders are busy pitching and they know they can't get the ball to where he is before he gets back to the base, so they don't bother; they just let him take his head start. The batter hits a line drive, which is a batted ball that goes in a nearly horizontal line, and the runner runs toward the next base. If the line drive ball bounced on the ground before being caught by a fielder, all the runners would be safe. But then the runner gets a surprise and a fielder catches the ball on the fly. The batter is out, and the runners are required to return to their bases. If the fielder can get the ball back to the base before the runner gets there, the runner is out also. The batter and the runner are both put out on one play, so this is called `double play'.
A runner can also be put out by a `force play'. A runner is forced to advance when another runner is running towards the base he is on. For example, if there is a runner on first base and the batter hits the ball, the batter is now running to first base. The runner already on first base is forced to vacate because no base may be occupied by two runners at once. He must run to second base. A runner who is forced to advance need not be tagged with the ball to be put out. Instead, the fielder need only tag the base to put out the approaching runner. This is much easier than tagging the runner himself.
Here is an example: O2 is a runner on first base. The batter, O1, hits the ball towards second base. O1 starts running to first base. O2 starts running to second base. A fielder, F2, near second base picks up the ball and touches second base while holding the ball. This is a force play on O2, who is put out. F2 throws the ball to another fielder, F1, near first base. F1 touches first base before O1 arrives. This is a force play on O1 who is also put out. (The batter is always considered to be forced to advance because he is not allowed to return to home plate.) Two outs are recorded one one play, so this is also a double play.
Here is a more interesting example. It starts as before: O2 is on first base and O1 is batting. F2 is near second base and F1 is near first base. O1 hits the ball towards F1 this time. F1 picks up the ball. What does he do?
He could touch first base, putting out O1 immediately on the force.
But this would remove the force on O2, because without O1 behind him
O2 is allowed to return to first base and is not forced to advance.
With no force, the only way to put out O2 would be to touch him with
the ball, which is difficult---runners slide into second base feet
first with their spikes out. So instead of putting out O1
immediately, F1 throws the ball to F2, who forces out O2 and throws
back to F1 to force out O1. This works because O1 usually takes a
fairly long time to get to first base---it takes him some time to get
up to speed after leaving home plate.
The best baseball player ever was Babe Ruth. Everyone knows this, even people who are trying to prove some point or other by claiming that someone else was better. Ruth played in the late 1910s and 1920s. At first he was an excellent pitcher and played for the Boston Red Sox, but they sold him to the New York Yankees and have been pissing and moaning about it ever since. The Yankees discovered that Ruth could hit even better than he could pitch and moved him to right field. Ruth discovered that he could hit thirty home runs in one year, which was completely unheard-of at the time. Nobody had thought of trying to hit home runs, and they hadn't realized yet that it was an effective way to win. The following year Ruth hit fifty-nine home runs and baseball has not been the same since.
Players to watch now: Alex Rodriguez of the Texas Rangers may very well turn out to be the best shortstop in history, but is presently labouring on a poor team. Greg Maddux of the Atlanta Braves is one of the best right-handed pitchers of the century.
Cal Ripken, recently retired shortstop for the Baltimore Orioles, recently broke the record for the greatest number of consecutive games played, previously held by Lou Gehrig. The record for most home runs in one season is presently 73, held by Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants.
Article text starts here
Delete everything before this line when moving to baseball
Baseball is a team sport that is popular in the Americas and East Asia.
In the United States, it was for many years the "national sport," though American football is now more popular among spectators.
Baseball is distantly related to cricket and rounders, while softball is very similar to baseball.
In its usual form, the game is between two teams of nine players on a playing field consisting of 4 bases, arranged in a diagonal square ("the diamond") and a large outfield.