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The longest baseball game took 33 innings to win

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Re: The longest baseball game took 33 innings to win

#31

No matter how many videos or articles I've read, I still can't wrap my head around the rules of baseball. Is there any guide for us non-americans to help us gain enough grasp on the rules to, at least, understand the dynamics of the game? Learning the basic of (american) football was much easier. I'm not writing any treaties any time soon, but at least I can follow the games and enjoy the "craftsmanship" of the playe…

American football is probably pretty straightforward at a very basic level. (And very complex as you dig deeper--coverages, penalties though even the refs seemingly don't understand them a lot of the time, man in motion rules. A lot it's simplified because at any serious level, players do their thing and don't violate most a the less straightforward points that much. I think rugby is pretty similar.

As someone who reffed it at a very casual level, ice hockey seems simpler overall.

Baseball--I don't know but then I grew up with it. You pitch the ball, you hit the ball, you get the ball into play (or not), you run around the bases. Again, lots of subtle points. To actually answer your question, I assume so. But I don't have one myself.

Re: The longest baseball game took 33 innings to win

#32

No matter how many videos or articles I've read, I still can't wrap my head around the rules of baseball. Is there any guide for us non-americans to help us gain enough grasp on the rules to, at least, understand the dynamics of the game? Learning the basic of (american) football was much easier. I'm not writing any treaties any time soon, but at least I can follow the games and enjoy the "craftsmanship" of the playe…

Buy* an old baseball sim game for a few dollars and play a few games from start to finish. Finish a season or two and you will understand more rules than most Americans!

*https://archive.org/details/r.b.i-baseball-21

Re: The longest baseball game took 33 innings to win

#33

No matter how many videos or articles I've read, I still can't wrap my head around the rules of baseball. Is there any guide for us non-americans to help us gain enough grasp on the rules to, at least, understand the dynamics of the game? Learning the basic of (american) football was much easier. I'm not writing any treaties any time soon, but at least I can follow the games and enjoy the "craftsmanship" of the playe…

The game itself is fairly simple; it’s just that it’s existed in codified form for like 140 years and they have had to make rule adjustments in every era to account for the next game-breaking strategy, so the corpus of rules is huge.

Each team gets up to nine turns on offense. If the home team (which would be on offense in the second half of the ninth inning) is ahead when their final turn on offense would occur, the game ends.

Each batter gets pitched to until they hit the ball in-bounds, they get three strikes, or they get four “balls”. A strike occurs when a hittable ball (over home plate, between the batter’s knees and shoulders, as a rough approximation) goes past the batter with no attempt to hit, or when any ball is swung at by the batter without a successful hit in-bounds (so, foul balls are counted as strikes, except that you can’t strike out on a foul - however, if you do hit a foul ball and a defender catches it before it hits the ground, you are out). Almost all other pitches [0] are “balls”, and after four balls the player automatically advances to first base.

Getting all the way back around to home plate scores a point.

After the defending team gets three outs against the batting team, they switch roles.

There are a lot more details and nuance, but that’s baseball in a nutshell.

[0] A very famous example of a pitch that was neither a ball nor a strike against the batter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ih_ovjbwQGk

Re: The longest baseball game took 33 innings to win

#34
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you are doing that at a normal game, you've got a problem...it might be accepted behavior in your social circle, but you have problem.

9 beers is a lot but it's not THAT many. - a drunk

It's a lot, but not egregiously so especially when you consider it's spread over 3 hours. That's 3 beers an hour for 3 hours...if you're big (like over 200lb) you're going to be drunk but certainly upright. If you're smaller, well, results may vary.

Re: The longest baseball game took 33 innings to win

#36

No matter how many videos or articles I've read, I still can't wrap my head around the rules of baseball. Is there any guide for us non-americans to help us gain enough grasp on the rules to, at least, understand the dynamics of the game? Learning the basic of (american) football was much easier. I'm not writing any treaties any time soon, but at least I can follow the games and enjoy the "craftsmanship" of the playe…

Hit ball within 90 degrees of home plate position and try to make it to as many bases as possible before being tagged out (by a player holding the ball) or forced out by a player holding the ball tagging a base that you are forced to travel to (due to a runner behind you having to advance or it being first base if you're the batter).

When ball is in air and caught without touching the ground by opposing team, the batter is automatically out and any already onbase runners must return to the tag the base they were on before the hit.

If batter swings and misses its a strike. If a batter doesnt swing but its a fair pitch (over the plate and above knees and at or below chest) its a strike. If the batter hits the ball outside of 90 degree range, its a foul ball and counts as a strike (but cant count for third strike or "strikeout" condition).

If pitcher throws ball outside of fair zone, and batter doesnt swing at it, its a "ball".

If batter gets 3 strikes he's out. If pitcher throws 4 "balls", its a "walk" and batter advances to 1st base for free and any runners on base in front of batter get to advance 1 base as well.

Game is 9 innings, each team gets one turn at offense and one turn at defense per inning. Each team's turn lasts until there are 3 outs.

If teams are still tied at end of 9th inning, they simply continue playing more innings until they are no longer tied. There are no game clocks in baseball.

Re: The longest baseball game took 33 innings to win

#37

No matter how many videos or articles I've read, I still can't wrap my head around the rules of baseball. Is there any guide for us non-americans to help us gain enough grasp on the rules to, at least, understand the dynamics of the game? Learning the basic of (american) football was much easier. I'm not writing any treaties any time soon, but at least I can follow the games and enjoy the "craftsmanship" of the playe…

Hit ball within 90 degrees of home plate position and try to make it to as many bases as possible before being tagged out (by a player holding the ball) or forced out by a player holding the ball tagging a base that you are forced to travel to (due to a runner behind you having to advance or it being first base if you're the batter). When ball is in air and caught without touching the ground by opposing team, the bat…

There is a pitch clock in MLB since 2023. If the pitcher does not pitch within 15 seconds (or 20 if someone is on base) then a ball is automatically awarded. There is a penalty against batters also for delay of game.

Before, the umpire could call this without an official timer but rarely did.

Re: The longest baseball game took 33 innings to win

#39

No matter how many videos or articles I've read, I still can't wrap my head around the rules of baseball. Is there any guide for us non-americans to help us gain enough grasp on the rules to, at least, understand the dynamics of the game? Learning the basic of (american) football was much easier. I'm not writing any treaties any time soon, but at least I can follow the games and enjoy the "craftsmanship" of the playe…

Hit ball within 90 degrees of home plate position and try to make it to as many bases as possible before being tagged out (by a player holding the ball) or forced out by a player holding the ball tagging a base that you are forced to travel to (due to a runner behind you having to advance or it being first base if you're the batter). When ball is in air and caught without touching the ground by opposing team, the bat…

You didn't actually include the score condition, which is that a player advances to each base and then the home plate!

Re: The longest baseball game took 33 innings to win

#40
post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hit ball within 90 degrees of home plate position and try to make it to as many bases as possible before being tagged out (by a player holding the ball) or forced out by a player holding the ball tagging a base that you are forced to travel to (due to a runner behind you having to advance or it being first base if you're the batter). When ball is in air and caught without touching the ground by opposing team, the bat…

You didn't actually include the score condition, which is that a player advances to each base and then the home plate!

Was hoping that was obvious, but good callout!

Bases must be tagged in order by runners. And they can safely wait at a base without getting tagged out as long as there is not a runner behind them that must advance. Anytime they are offbase they are at risk.

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