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Baseball Sports |
Baseball, a sport that is contested between two teams of
nine players on a baseball field. In this sport a defensive player
(a pitcher) throws a hard (fist-sized ball) to a target. An
offensive player (a batter) attempts to strike the ball using a
smooth, cylindrical bat in such order that it should not be caught
by fielders periperhal to and behind the pitcher.
A team scores while batting, by advancing a player
counter-clockwise past a series of four markers (bases) arranged at
the corners of a diamond. The last of it (home plate) marks the
location over which a pitch is thrown.
DO YOU KNOW
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The birthplace of baseball is
United States |
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Here
it has long been regarded as more than just a "major sport." |
For
many decades in US, baseball has been popularly referred to as
the "national pastime." |
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Major
League Baseball has been given a unique monopoly status by the
US Congress. |
Baseball,
both professional and amateur levels, is popular in North
America, Central America, parts of South America, the Caribbean,
and East Asia. |
HISTORY OF BASEBALL
The origin of baseball is not known clearly. In the British Isles,
number of early folk games were played that had characteristics like
our modern baseball. They had a ball which were thrown to a target
and opposing player defended this target by hitting the ball away.
Baseball has been popularized in the United States and is now
popular in North, Central, and South America, the Caribbean, and
Asia. It is played in organized professional or quasi-professional
leagues in the United States, Japan, Puerto Rico, Taiwan, South
Korea, Cuba, Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela.
BASEBALL IN OLYMPICS
This sport was first contested at the Summer Olympic Games (V
Olympiad) in 1912, held in Stockholm, Sweden. It appeared as a
demonstration sport again at the following games:
- XI Olympiad hosted in 1936 by Berlin, Germany.
- XV Olympiad hosted in 1952 by Helsinki, Finland, and played
as pesäpallo.
- XVI Olympiad hosted in 1956 by Melbourne, Australia.
- XVIII Olympiad hosted in 1964 by Tokyo, Japan.
- XXIII Olympiad hosted in 1984 by Los Angeles, California
(more than two nations participated).
- XXIV Olympiads hosted in 1988 by Seoul, South Korea (more
than two nations participated).
The International Olympic Committee conferred medal
status to baseball, under the auspices of the International Baseball
Federation (IBAF), at its 1986 Lausanne, Switzerland, meeting. It
was scheduled to be effective with the opening of the Games of the
XXV Olympiad (Barcelona, Spain) in 1992.
Baseball