DotS Addendum

Field Structure
Baseball is played on a field broken up into 2 major parts, the infield/diamond and the outfield. The infield is where the majority of play is held, it is shaped by four bases arranged in a diamond with a mound of dirt in the centre if it. The outfield is a larger stretch of field expanding from behind the bases to the outer limit of play. The individual player benches are knows as ‘dugouts’ and are canopied and literally sunken into the ground, these flank the left and right sides of the diamond. The bullpen is a warm-up area used typically by relief pitchers to get ready mid-game before they come in to pitch, in a proper field these are set beyond the left and right field boundary of the outfield.

Innings
A game consists of 9 innings broken into top and bottom, home team plays defense in the top (pitching and fielding) and offense in the bottom (batting). This is set up for the home field advantage where the home team can negate playing the bottom of the 9th if they are winning by the end of the top of the ninth, and so they have the chance at a walk off (scoring a leading run in the bottom of the 9th where the literally walk off the field) if they are behind.

Scoring
Scoring in baseball is counted in ‘runs’. A basic structure is a player will have an ‘at-bat’ with the goal of getting on base (whether through a hit or a walk), when on base a player becomes a ‘runner’ and the goal is then to advance the runner with subsequent hits/walks around the bases from first, second, to third, and eventually home where the run is then scored. A run can be scored by ‘home run’ as well where a ball is hit beyond the outfield boundary of play, this allows the batter to run the bases unimpeded—all runners already on base will also be brought in to score. A bases loaded (a runner on 1st, 2nd, and 3rd) home run is called a ‘grand slam’. When reporting the score I will always use away-home to follow the “away team at home team” format.

Outs
An out is achieved by striking out the batter (getting 3 strikes in an at-bat), catching the ball before it hits the ground on a hit, by throwing out a batter (rallying a dropped, fair ball to a baseman who touches the base before the runner while holding the ball), or tagging (touching the runner with your glove while in possession of the ball).

Positions
There are 9* positions in baseball. On defense positions are numbered as such 1-Pitcher, 2-Catcher, 3-First Base, 4-Second Base, 5-Third base, 6-Shortstop (infield between 2nd and 3rd), 7-Left Field, 8-Centre Field, 9-Right field. On offense these 9 player (except the pitcher) are arranged in a batting order based on ability with your best hitter typically batting 4th. *there is an offense only 10th position called Designated Hitter (DH) who bats in place of the pitcher and does not play defensively, their only job is to bat and typically bat first (lead-off) or fourth (clean-up).

Umpires
There are fours umpires in a game, one positioned behind each plate, the home plate umpire calls the count and is typically the leader of the umps. The other 3 are stationed behind bases and call things like outs and check-swings (will be explained when relevant). Umpires can eject players/coaches from games for being ornery and being disrespectful.

Coaches
A head coach is referred to as a ‘manager’ in baseball, there are ‘coaches’ as well, typically specialising in specific aspects (like pitching and batting). There are also ‘base coaches’ who are stationed outside the foul line beside first and third base during offense, their job in a game is to help the base runners by relaying signs/messages from the dugout and watching the other team’s fielding, telling the runner to continue running the bases or stop.

Pitches
There are a plethora of pitches but they can be broken down to straight pitches and breaking balls. Straight pitches are fastballs (a straight, fast pitch) and change-ups (a pitch visually the same as a fastball but is slower to mess with the batter’s timing). Breaking balls are pitches that move laterally and/or drastically drop before the strike zone—do not worry about knowing them, hell I can barely remember them—these are used to bait and fool the batter. It is a catcher’s job to worry about strategy and call for specific pitches and placement, they will give the pitcher signs (like holding out certain numbers of fingers and pointing directions to relay this information). Pitchers can nod or shake off signs until the two players agree on a pitch.

The Count
This is the running count of pitches per at-bat, formatted as #-# the first number represents ‘balls’ (pitches out of the strike zone) and the second number is strikes (pitches in the strike zone or swung at and missed pitches). 4 balls is a walk (where the batter automatically gets to go to first base), and 3 strikes is an out. There are 3 outs per inning.

The Strike Zone
The strike zone is a flat plane from the better’s knees to shoulders and within the bounds of either side of home plate, this zone can move/is up to the discretion of the home plate umpire; catchers regularly “frame” pitches to try and pull borderline pitches into the strike zone to get strikes called and the count in their favour. There is human error with the umpires, and disagreements between umpire/batter and umpire/catcher over whether a pitch was in/out of the zone are common.

Being on Base
A player is safe at base and cannot be tagged out as long as they are touching the base, players must touch the base as they are running on offense. Between pitches runners will typically get a lead (taking a few extra steps toward the next base as a head start) and will have to tag back up (running back to touch the base) on certain plays, or dive back in to avoid the tag (like when a pitcher throws to first on a pick-off, or on an attempted steal when the catcher rallys the ball to 2nd or 3rd after a pitch). Bases can be stolen, a pitched ball is in play so runners can take the chance and try to reach the next base before they are thrown out/tagged.

Foul
Extending diagonally from home plate are two foul lines, balls landing in these areas are out of play, pitches can be fouled off infinitely but the first 2 will count as strikes (ie if the count is 2-0 and a pitch is fouled off it will be 2-1, and if they foul off another it will be 2-2, if a third is fouled off the count will stay at 2-2). If a ball is popped up in the foul area it can be caught and counted as an out.

On Deck Circle
‘on deck’ refers to being the next in the batting order, there is an area by the dugout, in the foul area, where this batter can warm up and do some practice swings while their teammate before them is at-bat.

Walk-up music
Fun really cute thing baseball players do is they have a song that plays specific to them as they walk onto the field for an at-bat. Players will choose the song themselves and its not uncommon for them to change it up. Typically relief pitchers will also have a song for when they come out of the bullpen, but starters don’t really get anything.

Strikeout
A strikeout is when a pitcher throws 3 strikes in an at-bat without the batter hitting.

Ground ball
A ground ball is when the ball is hit (usually weakly) into the in-field (by touching the ground the ball is ‘in play’) typically they have pretty short bounces and are on the simpler side to field/catch for the team on defence. Will result in an out 9/10 times unless there is some kind of fielding error.

Pops/pop-fly
When a ball is hit really high into the air, can be either in-field or out-field. Again, very easy to field for the team on defence, will be an out 9/10 times unless errored.

RBI
Baseball statistic meaning Runs Batted In. If a player gets a hit and one of their teammates crosses home plate to score because of it that will count as 1RBI.

tagging
Tagging is a method of getting an out. When the ball is live/in-play a defence player, if they are in possession of the ball, can touch a runner (offence player) with their glove causing that player to become out. You see these most commonly on stolen base attempts or rally throws to home plate to save a run. The offensive player will usually slide on the ground/do whatever they can to avoid the tag, while the player on defence will try to take the shortest path possible to get the tag.