In baseball, hit by pitch (HBP) is an event in which a batter or his clothing or equipment is struck directly by a pitch from the pitcher; the batter is called a hit batsman (HB). A hit batsman is awarded first base, provided that he made an honest effort to avoid the pitch, although failure to do so is rarely called by an umpire. Being hit by a pitch is often caused by a batter standing too close to, or "crowding", home plate.
Softball is a game similar to baseball played with a larger ball on a field that has base lengths of 60 feet, a pitcher's mound that ranges from 35 to 43 feet away from home plate, and a home run fence that is 220–300 feet away from home plate, depending on the type of softball being played. It was invented in 1887 in Chicago, Illinois, United States as an indoor game. The game moves at a faster pace than traditional baseball due to the field being smaller and the bases and the fielders being closer to home plate. There is less time for the base runner to get to first while the opponent fields the ball; yet, the fielder has less time to field the ball while the opponent is running down to first base.
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who pitches the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw a walk. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the pitcher is assigned the number 1. The pitcher is often considered the most important player on the defensive side of the game, and as such is situated at the right end of the defensive spectrum. There are many different types of pitchers, such as the starting pitcher, relief pitcher, middle reliever, lefty specialist, setup man, and the closer.
A baseball field, also called a ball field or baseball diamond, is the field upon which the game of baseball is played. The term can also be used as a metonym for a baseball park. The term sandlot is also sometimes used, although this usually refers to less organized venues for activities like sandlot ball.
"Beanball" is a colloquialism used in baseball, for a ball thrown at an opposing player with the intention of striking them such as to cause harm, often connoting a throw at the player's head. A pitcher who throws beanballs often is known as a "headhunter". The term may be applied to any sport in which a player on one team regularly attempts to throw a ball toward the general vicinity of a player of the opposite team, but is typically expected not to hit that player with the ball. In cricket, the equivalent term is "beamer". Some people use the term "beaner", though that usage is discouraged as it is also an ethnic slur for Latino people.
Reginald Laverne Sanders is a former right fielder in Major League Baseball. He batted and threw right-handed. Sanders was 23 years old when he made his major league debut on August 22, 1991, after being selected in the seventh round of the 1987 amateur draft by the Cincinnati Reds. He attended Spartanburg Methodist College before beginning his pro career with the Rookie-level Billings Mustangs of the Pioneer League in 1988. He also played professionally with the St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates, Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants, San Diego Padres and Kansas City Royals, and was a member of the Arizona Diamondbacks' 2001 World Series championship over the New York Yankees. With the Cardinals, Sanders had a breakout of sorts during the 2005 National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres. In a three-game sweep of the Padres, Sanders had 10 runs batted in, a new record for a division series.
Mario Melvin Soto is a Dominican former pitcher, mostly as a starter, for the Cincinnati Reds of the Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1977 through 1988. He currently works in the Reds' front office.
A bench-clearing brawl is a form of ritualistic fighting that occurs in sports, most notably baseball and ice hockey, in which every player on both teams leaves their dugouts, bullpens, or benches, and charges the playing area in order to fight one another or try to break up a fight. Penalties for leaving the bench can range from nothing to severe.
This is an alphabetical list of selected unofficial and specialized terms, phrases, and other jargon used in baseball, along with their definitions, including illustrative examples for many entries.
Christopher Kenneth Volstad is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He is a 2005 graduate of Palm Beach Gardens High School. He has played in MLB for the Florida Marlins, Chicago Cubs, Colorado Rockies, Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago White Sox and in the KBO League for the Doosan Bears.
In baseball, a number of coaches assist in the smooth functioning of a team. They are assistants to the manager, who determines the lineup and decides how to substitute players during the game. Beyond the manager, more than a half dozen coaches may assist the manager in running the team. Essentially, baseball coaches are analogous to assistant coaches in other sports, as the baseball manager is to the head coach.
Pool D of the First Round of the 2013 World Baseball Classic was held at Chase Field, Phoenix and Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, Scottsdale, Arizona, United States from March 7 to 10, 2013.
The 2016 Texas Rangers season was the Rangers' 56th season of the franchise and the 45th since the team relocated to Arlington, Texas. The Rangers won the American League (AL) West championship for the second straight season, with the best record in the AL. However, for the second straight year, they lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in the Division Series, this time in three games. The Rangers set an MLB record by going 36–11 in one-run games. Because of this stat as well as the team winning 95 games instead of their projected 80 wins, baseball pundits viewed the Rangers as a "lucky" team.
The unwritten rules of baseball are a set of unspoken rules in baseball that some players and managers follow. The rules often concern gamesmanship and not disrespecting players on the opposing team. Incidents have occurred when one or more players interpret the actions of another player as violating the unwritten rules, which can result in beanballs and bench-clearing brawls. As the rules are unwritten, and in many cases vague, the interpretation is left to the players involved.
In baseball, sign stealing is the observing and relaying, through legal and illegal methods, of the signs being given by the opposing catcher to the pitcher or a coach to a base runner. The signs are stolen by the opposing team and then relayed to the other members of the team to give advance knowledge of what kind of pitch is coming next, thereby giving that batter an advantage. Legal sign stealing typically involves the signs being observed by a runner on second base and then relayed to the batter through some sort of gesture. Illegal sign stealing involves mechanical or electronic technology; the rules regarding this have become more stringent over time and continue to evolve.
José Bautista's bat flip was a baseball play that occurred in Game 5 of the 2015 American League Division Series, on October 14, 2015, at Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ontario. During the seventh inning, Toronto Blue Jays right fielder José Bautista executed what Andrew Keh of The New York Times described as possibly "the most ostentatious bat flip in MLB history" after hitting a go-ahead, three-run home run off Texas Rangers relief pitcher Sam Dyson. A vital symbol of Toronto's first postseason appearance since 1993, the bat flip was voted Esurance's MLB Award for Best Play on Offense for 2015. In the five games of the ALDS, Bautista batted .273 with two home runs and five RBI.
