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Baseball
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Baseball is a fun and active sport played by people of all ages. In the following sections I will try to show people how to properly pitch, hit a ball, and catch a ball. If you want to practise these skills you will need a bat, a ball, a glove, proper attire (pants, shirt), a partner to throw the ball to or hit the ball to, and a field to play on. If you follow the instructions below and practise them often you will soon be a very good player. Batting 1. You must wait until the umpire calls you to come to the plate to bat. 2. Step into the middle of the batters box with your chest facing home plate and your side facing home plate. 3. keep your feet shoulder width apart, slightly bent and with the weight on your back foot. 4. hold your arms out from your body with the bat handle in front of your back shoulder. 5. you may wish to take a few practise swings before the pitch is thrown, just to make sure that the end of your bat reaches the far side of the plate. 6. as the pitch is thrown keep your eyes on the ball and your weight on your back leg. 7. slightly raise your front leg and quickly decide if this is the pitch that you are going to swing at. 8. when you get the right pitch step forward and bring your arms forward in an arc motion while your weight shifts from your back leg to your front leg. 9. follow through on the pitch and let you wrists roll as the bat comes around to your other shoulder. 10. run to the base and your coach will tell you if you need to run to second or not. *Warning: if you take your eyes off the ball you could miss and possibly get hurt.* Pitching 1. Get the sign from your catcher which will tell you what pitch to throw (i.e. fastball, curveball etc.) 2. begin your wind up by bringing the glove and ball up towards your chest. 3. keep your eyes on the target. 4. slightly raise your leg that is closest to home plate. 5. keep your weight on your back foot. 6. bring your arm back and strive the front foot towards home plate as far as you can without loosing your balance. 7. bring your throwing arm just above your ear with your elbow at a ninety degree angle to the ground. 8. turn your chest so that is square to the target and bring your back leg forward so that you are in good fielding position if the batter hits the ball right to you. *Warning: if you don't warm up you could pull a muscle or get injured very bad.* Catching 1. be ready, for when the ball comes to you. 2. when the ball does come to you, run as fast as possible to the spot where the ball was hit. 3. aim the pocket of your glove at the ball. 4. bring your opposite hand behind your glove for support. 5. when the ball hits your glove clutch your fingers so that you can trap the ball. 6. even if the ball goes foul make your best attempt to catch the ball 7. if there are base runners get the ball to the infield as soon as possible. * Warning: do not put your glove in front of your face so that you can't see, if you do it could lead to serious injury.* Pitching, hitting, and catching are the most important part of baseball. If you can perform all of those skills you will have a better time and will be able to play the game properly. George Herman Ruth (Babe Ruth) was born on February 6, 1895 in Baltimore, Maryland and died on August 16, 1948, in New York, New York. He bats left and throws with his left hand. He was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936. Fresh out of St. Mary's Industrial School in Baltimore, he debuted as a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox, winning 89 games over six seasons. He got traded to the Yankees in 1920 where he started playing outfield because of his miraculous power, he launched his amazing home run career, with sixty in his first year as outfielder and 714 in his career. Lynn Nolan Ryan (Nolan Ryan) was born on January 31, 1947 in Refugio, Texas. Nolan bats right and throw with his right hand. He was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999. He holds several major league pitching records, including most strikeouts (5,714), most no-hitters (7), most games with 15 or more strikeouts (26), and most strikeouts during a single season (383). He was also the only pitcher to strikeout 16 or more batters in a game after the age of 40. Nolan did that three times. Nolan is the only player to play for 27 seasons in the major leagues. Over his career Nolan struck out an average of 9.55 batters per nine innings pitched, while allowing opposing batters a meagre .204 batting average. Lawrence Peter Berra (Yogi Berra) was born on May 12, 1925 in St. Louis, Missouri. He was a left handed batter and threw with his right hand. Yogi was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1972. Yogi played on fourteen pennant winning teams and ten world champion teams (more than any other player). He set the American league home record for the catchers and topped 100-RBI mark four years in a row. He was a three-time American league MVP and was selected to play in fifteen successful All-star games. Sammy Sosa born on November 12, 1968. Sammy is a Chicago Cub who surpassed Roger Maris' season home run record (61), just after Mark McGwire did, in 1998 and finished the year with 66; NL MVP (1998); followed up his amazing 1998 by hitting 63 HRs in 1999 with 141 RBI; 5-time NL all-star (1995,98,99,00,01) and winner of the 2000 Home Run Derby. He played for 14 seasons with several teams but played eleven with the Chicago Cubs. Ken Griffey Jr. was born on November 21, 1969. He has played in the Major Leagues since 1989. He bats left and throws with his left hand. Although he is starting to run into injury troubles he still is predicted to be the guy to shatter Hank Aaron's record for most home-runs in a career. Hank hit 755 home-runs and Ken has hit 460, he has a long ways to go still. World History Baseball grew out of several centuries of ball and bat games like rounders and town ball which came from England. New York City's Knickerbockers baseball club made up the rules and field measurements for what was first called baseball in 1845. A game was played that year in Hoboken, New Jersey. That game was recognized as the first official baseball game. The Knickerbockers club as well as the Civil war, helped spread the game across the world. The National Baseball League was formed in 1876 and later in 1901 the American league came along and formed what is now known as The Major League. In 1933, the first ever all-star game was played. The all-star game is a game among the very best baseball players from each league (American and National). The American league defeated the National league. The first ever televised game was played in 1939 when the Cincinnati Reds played against the Brooklyn Dodgers. In 1947 Jackie Robinson became the first black player to join the league. At the Barcelona, Spain summer Olympics in 1992, baseball became an Olympic medal sport. Canadian History The first Canadian team in the major leagues was the Hamilton Young Canadians.
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