BASEBALL-

Baseball is a bat and ball game played between two teams of nine players who take turns batting and fielding.

The offence attempts to score more runs than its opponents by hitting a ball thrown by the pitcher with a bat and moving counter-clockwise around a series of four bases: first, second, third and home plate. A run is scored when the runner advances around the bases and returns to home plate.

Players on the batting team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, which tries to prevent runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the batting team can stop at any of the bases and later advance on a team mate's hit or other means. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the fielding team records three outs. One turn at bat for both teams, beginning with the visiting team, constitutes an innings, and nine innings a game. The team with the most runs at the end of the game wins.

There are three basic tools of baseball: the ball, the bat, and the glove or mitt:

1. The baseball is about the size of an adult's fist, around 9 inches (23 centimetres) in circumference. It has a rubber or cork centre, wound in yarn and covered in white cowhide, with red stitching.
2. The bat is a hitting tool, traditionally made of a single, solid piece of wood. Other materials are now commonly used for non-professional games. It is a hard round stick, about 2.5 inches (6.4 centimetres) in diameter at the hitting end, tapering to a narrower handle and culminating in a knob. Bats used by adults are typically around 34 inches (86 centimetres) long, and not longer than 42 inches (106 centimetres).
3. The glove or mitt is a fielding tool, made of padded leather with webbing between the fingers. As an aid in catching and holding onto the ball, it takes various shapes to meet the specific needs of different fielding positions.