1.
Baseball
–
Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of nine players each, who take turns batting and fielding. A run is scored when a player advances around the bases, 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 team who reaches a base safely can later attempt to advance to subsequent bases during teammates turns batting. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the team records three outs. One turn batting for both teams, beginning with the team, constitutes an inning. A game is composed of nine innings, and the team with the number of runs at the end of the game wins. Baseball has no clock, although almost all games end in the ninth inning. Baseball evolved from older bat-and-ball games already being played in England by the mid-18th century and this game was brought by immigrants to North America, where the modern version developed. By the late 19th century, baseball was widely recognized as the sport of the United States. Baseball is now popular in North America and parts of Central and South America, the Caribbean, in the United States and Canada, professional Major League Baseball teams are divided into the National League and American League, each with three divisions, East, West, and Central. The major league champion is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series, the top level of play is similarly split in Japan between the Central and Pacific Leagues and in Cuba between the West League and East League. The evolution of baseball from older bat-and-ball games is difficult to trace with precision, a French manuscript from 1344 contains an illustration of clerics playing a game, possibly la soule, with similarities to baseball. Other old French games such as thèque, la balle au bâton, consensus once held that todays baseball is a North American development from the older game rounders, popular in Great Britain and Ireland. Baseball Before We Knew It, A Search for the Roots of the Game, by David Block, suggests that the game originated in England, recently uncovered historical evidence supports this position. Block argues that rounders and early baseball were actually regional variants of other. It has long believed that cricket also descended from such games. The earliest known reference to baseball is in a 1744 British publication, A Little Pretty Pocket-Book, David Block discovered that the first recorded game of Bass-Ball took place in 1749 in Surrey, and featured the Prince of Wales as a player. William Bray, an English lawyer, recorded a game of baseball on Easter Monday 1755 in Guildford and this early form of the game was apparently brought to Canada by English immigrants
2.
Run (baseball)
–
A player may score by hitting a home run or by any combination of plays that puts him safely on base as a runner and subsequently brings him home. The object of the game is for a team to score more runs than its opponent. But if the out is not a force out, but a tag out, then if that other baserunner crosses home plate before that tag out is made. Example 1, With a runner on third and two outs, batter hits a ball to the second baseman. The runner on third races home, the second baseman fields the ball and throws on to the first baseman in time to get the batter on the force out at first for the third out of the inning. Even if the runner on third had touched home plate before that force out was made at first, example 2, With a runner on third and two outs, batter hits a fly ball over centerfielders head. It bounces several times as it rolls to the wall, the runner on third runs safely home and easily scores a run. Meanwhile, the batter reaches first, then tries to advance to second. The centerfielder, having retrieved the ball, throws the ball to the second baseman, since the runner stepped on home plate before the batter was tagged out at second for the third out of the inning, his run will count. In baseball statistics, a player who advances around all the bases to score is credited with a run, while runs scored is considered an important individual batting statistic, it is regarded as less significant than runs batted in. Both individual runs scored and runs batted in are heavily context-dependent, for a more sophisticated assessment of a contribution toward producing runs for his team. If the inning is reconstructed without the error, and if that third batter, instead of reaching on an error, registered an out, thus, the two runs that did score will be classified as unearned, and will not count in the pitchers personal statistics. Be advised though that unearned runs are a statistical animal only, all runs count the same in the score, whether they are earned or unearned. The career record for most runs scored by a player is 2,295. The season record for most runs scored is 198, set by Billy Hamilton of the Philadelphia Phillies in 1894, the so-called modern-day record is 177, achieved by Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees in 1921. The record for most seasons leading one of the leagues in runs scored is 8. The record for most consecutive games with at least one run scored is 18, shared by the Yankees Red Rolfe and the Cleveland Indians Kenny Lofton. The record for most runs scored by a player in a game is 7
3.
Error (baseball)
–
The term error can also refer to the play during which an error was committed. In that case, the play will be scored both as a hit and an error. Similarly, a batter does not receive credit for a run batted in when runs score on an error, passed balls and wild pitches are separate statistical categories and are not scored as errors. There is a loophole in the rules on errors for catchers. There is therefore a no fault condition for the attempting to prevent a steal. However, when considering that the majority of stolen base attempts are successful, if the runner takes an additional base due to the wild throw, an error is charged for that advance. However, if the catchers glove is hit by the bat, it is counted as a catchers interference, traditionally, the number of errors was a statistic used to quantify the skill of a fielder. However, fans and analysts have questioned the usefulness and significance of errors as a metric for fielding skill, notably, mental misjudgments, such as failure to cover a base or attempting a force out when such a play is not available, are not considered errors. A more subtle, though more significant objection to the error, in order for a fielder to be charged with an error, he must have done something right by being in the correct place to be able to attempt the play. A poor fielder may avoid many errors simply by being unable to reach batted or thrown balls that a fielder could successfully reach. Thus, it is possible that a poor fielder will have fewer errors than any fielder with higher expectancies, however, this still leaves statistics, such as fielding percentage, that are based on errors as a way to compare the defensive abilities of players. Errors also hold significance in calculating the earned run average of a pitcher, runs scored due to an error are unearned, and do not count toward a pitchers ERA. In Major League Baseball, Herman Long holds the Major League records with 1096 errors in his career between 1889 and 1904, bill Dahlen, Deacon White and Germany Smith are the only other players to make 1,000 errors during their MLB careers. All of these players played at least one season before 1900, the 20th century record is held by Rabbit Maranville with 711 errors. Among active players, Adrián Beltré leads with 275 errors over 2475 career games as of June 14,2015, the major league record for errors by a pitcher in a career is held by Hippo Vaughn, with 64 errors. That also is the National League record, the American career mark is held by Ed Walsh. The most errors made by a pitcher in a season is 28 by Jim Whitney, the American League record of 15 is held by three pitchers, Jack Chesbro, Rube Waddell, and Ed Walsh. The record for most errors made by a pitcher in one inning is three, first set by Cy Seymour in 1898, the record was tied by Tommy John in 1988, Jaime Navarro in 1996 and Mike Sirotka in 1999
4.
Earned run average
–
In baseball statistics, earned run average is the mean of earned runs given up by a pitcher per nine innings pitched. It is determined by dividing the number of earned runs allowed by the number of innings pitched, runs resulting from defensive errors are recorded as unearned runs and omitted from ERA calculations. Henry Chadwick is credited with devising the statistic, which caught on as a measure of pitching effectiveness after relief pitching came into vogue in the 1900s. Some criterion was needed to capture the apportionment of earned-run responsibility for a pitcher in games that saw contributions from other pitchers for the same team, a pitcher is assessed an earned run for each run scored by a batter who reaches base while batting against that pitcher. The National League first tabulated official earned run average statistics in 1912, recently written baseball encyclopedias display ERAs for earlier years, but these were computed retroactively. Negro League pitchers are often rated by RA, or total runs allowed, as with batting average, the definition of a good ERA varies from year to year. During the dead-ball era of the 1900s and 1910s, an ERA below 2.00 was considered good, in the 1960s, sub-2.00 ERAs returned, as other influences such as ballparks with different dimensions were introduced. Today, an ERA under 4.00 is again considered good, the all-time record for the lowest single season earned run average by a pitcher pitching 300 or more innings is 1.12, set by Bob Gibson in 1968. The record for the lowest career earned run average is 1.82, held by Ed Walsh, but a purported record based on so few innings pitched is highly misleading. Over the years, more than a dozen part-time pitchers have pitched 105 or more innings and had a run average lower than 0.86. Some sources may list players with infinite ERAs and this can happen if a pitcher allows one or more earned runs without retiring a batter. Additionally, an undefined ERA occasionally occurs at the beginning of a baseball season and it is sometimes incorrectly displayed as zero or as the lowest ranking ERA, even though it is more akin to the highest. At times it can be misleading to judge relief pitchers solely on ERA, because they are charged only for runs scored by batters who reached base while batting against them. Thus, if a pitcher enters the game with his team leading by 1 run, with 2 outs and the bases loaded. If he retires the batter, his ERA for that game will be 0.00 despite having surrendered the lead. Starting pitchers operate under the rules but are not called upon to start pitching with runners already on base. The relievers freedom to use their energy for a few innings, or even for just a few batters. ERA, taken by itself, can also be misleading when trying to objectively judge starting pitchers, the advent of the designated hitter rule in the American League in 1973 made the pitching environment significantly different
5.
Official scorer
–
In the game of baseball, the official scorer is a person appointed by the league to record the events on the field, and to send the official scoring record of the game back to the league offices. Judgment calls are made about errors, unearned runs, fielders choice, the value of hits in certain situations. This record is used to compile statistics for each player and team, a box score is a summary of the official scorers game record. Newspaper writers initially performed this function in the days of Major League Baseball. Controversies related to perceived bias or errors in scoring have led to questions about important baseball records, including several no-hitters and Joe DiMaggios 56-game hitting streak of 1941. By 1979, many major newspapers decided to ban their writers from scoring baseball games due to conflict-of-interest concerns, since 1980, some reforms have been suggested to improve the performance of official scorers. In 2001, MLB formed a committee to review their performance. This authority was used by the scoring three times during the 2009 season. In 2006, an academic study seemed to confirm the existence of a home-team bias in scoring decisions. Henry Chadwick is generally credited with the invention of scorekeeping in baseball, Chadwick was also the inventor of the modern box score and the writer of the first rule book for the game of baseball. A judgment call that is required by the official scorer does not alter the outcome of a game, qualified candidates for scoring were submitted to the leagues for approval. Baseball writer-scorers usually worked at the games played at the stadium of the team which they covered for their newspaper. The writer-scorers were tasked with making decisions that could impact the statistics of the team they were writing about. Because of this affiliation, the scorer was often presumed by the baseball players and managers to favor the home team when making the required judgment calls during the course of a game. Criticism of scoring decisions date to the earliest days of the game, some historians claim that Joe DiMaggios record 56-game hitting streak in 1941 was made possible by several generous rulings at Yankee Stadium. Although scoring decisions were widely believed to favor the hitter over the defense, infielder Dave Johnson said, Ive been involved in five or six no-hit games, and all of them were suspected of being helped by hometown scoring. One of the last controversies of the era was seen in a 1978 game at St. Louis. The official scorer Neal Russo judged the play to be a rather than a hit
6.
Wild pitch
–
A wild pitch usually passes the catcher behind home plate, often allowing runners on base an easy chance to advance while the catcher chases the ball down. Sometimes the catcher may block a pitch, and the ball may be nearby, a closely related statistic is the passed ball. As with many statistics, whether a pitch that gets away from a catcher is counted as a wild pitch or a passed ball is at the discretion of the official scorer. The benefit of the doubt is given to the catcher if there is uncertainty, therefore. Because the pitcher and catcher handle the much more than other fielders, certain misplays on pitched balls are defined in Rule 10.13 as wild pitches. No error shall be charged when a pitch or passed ball is scored. A wild pitch may only be scored if one or more runners advance, if the bases are empty, or the catcher retrieves the ball quickly and the runner are unable to advance, a wild pitch is not charged. A scored run due to a pitch is recorded as an earned run. A runner who advances on a pitch is not credited with a stolen base unless he breaks before the pitcher begins his delivery. Nolan Ryan is the leader in the category, throwing 277 wild pitches over his 27 years in Major League Baseball. He also led his league in the category in six different seasons, however, the all-time record belongs to Tony Mullane, who threw 343 in the early years of the game from 1881 to 1894. After Ryans 277, the pitcher on the list is Mickey Welch 274. Bill Stemmyer still holds the record, throwing 63 wild pitches in 1886. Since 1900, however, the highest total in a season has been 30, the modern record in a single game is 6, held by three different pitchers. Dickey, Phil Niekro, Walter Johnson, and Kevin Gregg all hold the modern-era single inning wild pitch record with four, rick Ankiel, however, has produced five wild pitches in the 3rd inning of the 2000 NLDS. Bert Cunningham of the Players League in 1890 also threw five in an inning, the current active leader is Félix Hernández, with 132 wild pitches. The only other pitchers with 100+ wild pitches are John Lackey with 114. Baseball Reference – MLB Career Leaders and Records for Wild Pitches Baseball Rules See section 10.13
