What is Baseball?

Baseball is a game in which a team of nine defensive players (fielders) faces off against a lineup of nine offensive players (batters). The batters come up, one at a time, and stand at home plate, holding a bat. The defensive team, meanwhile, controls the ball, and pitch the ball to the batter, who attempts to hit it with the bat. Ultimately, the batter is attempting to hit the ball in such a way that they can run safely between a series of three bases, before returning to and touching home plate; each time they do this, they score a run. The defensive team, meanwhile, is trying to prevent this by retiring the batter or any runners. If they can do so, it is called an out.

Once the defense collects three outs, the two teams switch sides. Each full cycle of offense versus defense is called an "inning," with each set of three outs being called a "half-inning." The first and second halves of each inning are called the top and the bottom of the inning, respectively. The team that has been designated as the “home” team¹ fields in the tops of innings, and bats in the bottoms of innings; the “visiting” team does the opposite. Games generally are scheduled to last nine full innings of play, though there are frequent exceptions to this, as will be discussed later.