Enrich your baseball knowledge with baseball lingo
Before you can start enjoying Baseball and picking out your favorite baseball teams, you should first get to know more about the game. Learning baseball fundamentals and of course the language that are applied in the sport will be very helpful. There are special and technical terms that you will hear as you begin to get exposed. If you are not familiar with them, you certainly have a tough time knowing whats happening in the game.
Here are some of the baseball terms you should know about. It is important to note that the sports lingo is not hard to define and understand. Learning these words and their meanings would be significant if you intend to fully enjoy the games.
Batter’s box is the rectangular area on every side of a home plate where the players stand to bat or hit the ball. When the batter is hit on the head by a pitch, he is said to be ‘beaned.’ Take note that the batter advances to the first base every time he is hit by a pitch. The coach’s box is the outlined area on each side of first and third bases. The coach of the batting team is allowed to give his players the instructions while inside the area.
The count is the frequency of the balls and strikes hit or missed by the batter. Three balls and two strikes make a full count. Balls are pitches thrown outside of the “strike zone”. The strike zone is the area a pitcher must throw the ball in order to get a “strike”. Three balls thrown into the strike zone and the batter is out.
A force plays happen when the batter hits a ball and then runs to the first base, prompting the base runner ahead of him to advance to the next base. To get any runner out of the game, the infielder needs to hold the ball and tag/step on the base ahead of the target runner. There is a need for the pitching team to go to a base first before a runner does.
A steal is when a runner is on a base and while a pitch is thrown tries to run to the next base. The catcher can catch the pitch and attempt to throw the ball to the team mate on the base and the baseman can tag the runner out so the base will not be stolen.
An error is committed when a fielding player makes a bad throw to allow any batter or runner to advance to the succeeding bases. The pitching team should avoid this misplay. When the fielders have more than an option to make a batter or runner out, there is a fielder’s choice.
The lineup is the order set for the players to bat. When a player in the batting team is next online to hit the bat based on the lineup, he is said to be on deck. The diamond refers to the infield where there is a home plate and three bases. When the ball is hit, the pitching team should move to catch or get the ball and arrest runners to advance further to the bases. If runners succeed in doing so, they are ‘safe.’
One fun term is a “can of corn” – that is a term for a catchable high fly ball into the outfield. No one is really sure where that term originated way back in the early 1800s of baseball.
We hope you’ve leaned well about baseball terms!
There you have it. Your objective to learn baseball and understand the game better could depend on how you fully comprehend and use the above-mentioned terms. You could now talk more about the popular sport with your friends, colleagues, and relatives who are truly addicted and passionate about this pitch and bat ball game.
If you want to learn more interesting facts about the game, you may also read our post about why baseball playoff games start at weird times.