The game of Baseball is easy to play, impossible to master, and is sometimes rather difficult to understand. Nevertheless it should not be hard to appreciate that hitting a round ball with a round bat, when the ball is travelling in excess of 50 mph (even in youth baseball) is one of the hardest things to achieve consistently, in any sport.

Baseball is a team game played between two teams, with nine active players at any one time.

The objective of the game is to score more runs than your opponent. A run is scored each time a player rounds each of the three bases on the field in order and then returns to home plate and touches it.

The game is divided into innings. If the game is tied after the last inning (9 innings for adults, 7 for U15s and 6 for U13s) then the game continues to be played one complete inning at a time until one team wins.

In each inning both teams takes one turn at fielding (defence) and batting (offence). The home team fields in the first part of the inning referred to as the top of the inning. The home team then takes a turn at batting in the bottom of the inning.

A teams turn at batting continues until the defence has got three members of the batting team out. In UK youth baseball the offensive half inning is also stopped after five runs have been scored.

An offensive player is out if

• they are struck out by the pitcher.
• they hit the ball and it is caught before it bounces.
• they are tagged with the ball when they are not in contact with a base, and only one offensive player is allowed to occupy a base at any one time.
• the base they are running to is touched by a defensive player holding the ball, in the situations where there are offensive players on all the bases behind the runner or the runner is returning to a base when they must tag up.

At the beginning of the game both team managers and the game umpires meet on home plate so that they can agree any additional rules relating to the field of play for the game. The umpire then passes the ball to the home teams pitcher.

The pitcher must then throw the ball while his foot is in contact with the rubber (a small rectangle of wood set into the mound, the raised area near the middle of the infield). The pitcher then throws the ball towards his catcher who is positioned behind home plate.

The umpire-in-chief then decides whether the pitch was a ball or a strike. A strike is defined as a ball that

• the batter takes a swing at, where the bat passes in front of the home plate.
• in the umpire's opinion intersects the strike zone (an area that is directly above home plate, starting at the hollow beneath the batters knees and rising to the midpoint between the top of the batter's shoulders and the top of their trousers).
• is hit and lands in foul territory (the area outside of the two lines which extend from home plate passing through the first and third bases) when the batter has less than two strikes.
• is bunted and ends up in foul territory regardless of the number of strikes against the batter.
• touches the batter while they are swinging at it, or while the ball is in the strike zone.

If the batter hits the ball forwards, inside the two foul lines then they must drop their bat and begin running around the bases. If the pitcher throws three strikes then the batter is out which is called a strike out. If the pitcher throws four balls then the batter is allowed to walk to first base without liability to be put out.

When the ball is hit any offensive players already occupying a base have the opportunity to advance to the next base. If the ball is caught then the runner must tag up by returning to and touching the base they were occupying when the pitcher started with the ball. If a player is standing on a base that will be required by the batter or runners behind them so that no base will have more than one player occupying it then this player is forced to advance to at least the next base.

The rules of baseball are far more complicated than this simple description to handle a large number of unusual circumstances that arise during the course of a game. However, with this brief description you should now be able to watch a game of baseball and recognize what is happening.