Having looked at football yesterday in Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting: Part 15, I want to get the taste of the idea of a French Football League out of my mouth by moving on to baseball which is often referred to as the American Pasttime. Americans invented the game in the early part of the 20th century and people are crazy for it in this country even if it is pretty much dull as dirt to watch.

We have more movies about baseball in this country than I can name and baseball scandals hurt Americans in a way that is hard to describe; as i mentioned we still haven’t gotten over the 80 year old Black Sox Scandal, Pete Rose (aka Charlie Hustle) is a still a pariah for gambling while he was playing and I’m not sure what will happen when the steroid issue is finally resolved.

As I mentioned in a previous part, up until maybe the last 10 or 20 years, pretty much all Americans or at least middle class white ones were exposed to the game.  That is changing and it won’t honestly shock me if baseball doesn’t start to die (the drug scandals not helping) in this country.  So let’s look at baseball but before you do, please read this.

And today is long due to the explanation of baseball’s rules.  It’s a weird game.

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How the Game is Played

Baseball is a game played on a diamond shaped field which is referred to, logically, as the baseball diamond.  The infield consists of 4 bases in a diamond pattern that are each 90 feet (27 meters) apart from one another.  The main plate is home plate at the ‘bottom’ of the diamond and players run counterclockwise to 1st, 2nd and 3rd base.   In the middle of the diamond, 60 feet (18 meters) away from home plate is the pitcher’s mound where the pitcher, who throws the ball stands.  There is also the outfield and the whole thing looks like this.

Continue reading Why the US Sucks at Olympic Lifting: Part 16