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It's more than a game....It's baseball!! Baseball Rules

One of my first times out to an American baseball game was at the invitation of some friends to go out and watch the Brewers at Miller Stadium in Milwaukee. For an American the game brings them back to their childhood when they could get together with friends and family, hit the ball, and run the bases. It seemed like there was fanfare to rival any national holiday. Which is an oddity for some...but for Americans...this is their pastime...and every game is a chance to see these sometimes larger than life athletes hit farther and reach higher.

Every sport has its pinnacle but none as coveted as baseball's World Series. A best of seven series that's played between the American League and National League. This is the annual culmination of 162 regular season games for Major League Baseball to be crowned "World Champions" From an outsider looking in Baseball appeared simple enough -- a pitcher throws the ball at the home plate, the other teams batters attempts to hit the ball and run around the field." But 3 strikes puts the batter out. 3 outs and the teams switch.

Us Europeans generally prefer simple sports with easy rules and as few breaks as possible. You know, like cricket?! Well, I guess that only the English like cricket, and we're not "really" Europeans. On the edge of their seats, baseball fans cheer, sing, chant and have pitch after pitch to quench their thirst... a near 100 mph fastball hits the glove....another "Out!. There was obviously more to this game.

So here's what a game looked like to me the first 4 innings of the game.
- Each man that's on the side that's up, line up and 1 by 1 go out to home plate 
- The men who are out try to get him out, and when he is out he goes in the dugout and the the man on deck is up followed by the man in the hole.
- When they are all out, the side that's out comes in and the side that's up goes out and tries to get those coming in out.
 - Even if there are men still on and not out.
- There are men called umpires who stay out all the time, and they decide when the men who are in are out.
- Depending on the weather and the light, the umpires can also send everybody in, no matter whether they're in or out.
- When both sides have been in and all the men are out (including those who are not out), then the game is finished.

Wait a second let's slow that down...We're going into a bit more detail here....
This what I learned about baseball from my friends...
There are two teams that alternate between offense and defense and like other games, each tries to score more points than the other...but in baseball they don't call them "points" they call them "runs". You can score a "run" by completing one circuit of four bases but only while on offense or "at bat". It's called at bat because of the cylindrical piece of wood the players use to hit the ball.

http://youtu.be/0bKkGeROiPA