What is baseball? – The greatest game on Earth!

So… Exactly what is baseball?

Hey everyone and welcome back!

I hope you all had a great Winter and are looking forward to the start of an exciting new season as much as I am.

I have noticed that there is a lot of new interest in our beloved sport and many people asking the question – “what is baseball?”

I thought I would share what baseball means to me and why I think it is the greatest game on Earth. Not just what baseball is, but what baseball means to those of us who love it.

So without further ado, let’s jump right in.

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What is baseball?

Baseball is a (supposedly) non contact sport played with a bat and a ball between 2 opposing teams. (Try telling a 2nd baseman, short stop, or catcher that baseball is a non contact sport!)

A regulation game is 9 innings long with the goal being to score more runs than the opposing team.

Should the score be tied after 9 innings have been played, the game will go into what’s called “extra innings.” This is one of the many things that sets baseball apart from most of the other “major sports.”

There are no ties in baseball!

In fact, the longest game ever played in Major League Baseball history was a grueling 8 hour and 6 minute marathon played between the Milwaukee Brewers and the Chicago White Sox on May the 8th and 9th in 1984.

The White Sox would end up winning the game 7 -6 when Sox slugger Harold Baines dropped a massive home run on the 753rd pitch thrown in the game.

Baines’s late game heroic homer would also set the Major League record for the latest homer ever hit in a game.

*Most “non professional” baseball and softball leagues have scoring, inning and time limits. Read More Here

Each team has a defensive and an offensive “half” of an inning.

The goal of the offense is to score as many runs as possible in their offensive half of the inning.

The goal of the defense is to get the 3 outs needed to end each half inning before the offense can score any runs, or at least as few as possible.

There is no “scoring limit” in any given inning. The offense can continue to score as many runs as possible until the defense records 3 outs.

Here’s a few links to some articles we put together to help clarify some baseball rules:

• Simple Baseball Rules 
• What Is A Double Play In Baseball?
• What Is A Triple Play In Baseball?
• What Is An Unassisted Triple Play?
• What The Heck Is The Infield Fly Rule?
• How Many MLB Teams Are There?
• What Is Tagging Up In Baseball?

We had a great time putting these articles together and think you will enjoy them as much as we did 🙂

O.K. That’s our long winded answer to the question – “What is baseball?”

Now let’s move to why we love baseball!

What is baseball? – The greatest game on Earth!

Family Time!

My personal favorite thing about baseball, is that the game easily allows us to spend time together.

I like to think of our little clan as a “baseball family.”

Whether it be practice, watching a game on TV, or watching our kids play a game, no other sport allows us to do it as a family quite like baseball.

Collecting baseball cards, shopping for a new bat or glove, breaking in a new glove, playing a little wiffle ball in the back yard on the weekends, or going to see the home team play at the stadium.

Baseball presents you with a limitless amount of activities you can share with family.

Having fun while staying in shape!

For me, there is no other activity known to humans that is more fun than baseball.

I cannot tell you just how much I love pitching to my kids and watching them hit a sharp liner to the fence, or even better, over the fence.

I take great pride in watching how their swings improve and the pride they feel in themselves when all that practice pays off on game day.

I love hitting grounders and fly balls to them and watching how much their fielding has improved over the years. That awesome look of accomplishment on their face when they make a great diving play and then get right to their feet and throw a perfect strike across the diamond to first.

I love the look I get from them when we’re practicing base running and they beat me home by a mile and then sit there like they’re building a tent, saying “where you been?”

Baseball gives you tons of opportunities to have fun as a family and it most definitely keeps you in shape 🙂

These are just a couple of the reasons why I think baseball is the greatest game on Earth.

I also believe baseball can play an important role in every kids’ life, so much so, I wrote an entire article about it.

You can check it out here – Why baseball is good for kids… And you too!

Go check it out and tell me what you think. It was a fun article to write and I think you will enjoy it.

What is baseball? – Wrap it up!

Baseball is many things to many people.

To put it simply, baseball is the greatest game on Earth!

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I hope you enjoyed the article and we answered the question “what is baseball?” If you have any questions, or anything you would like to share, please do leave a comment below. We would love to hear from you and we love to talk baseball 🙂

Thanks for stopping by ~Jeremy