Vitilla is a popular variation of stickball played primarily in the Dominican Republic and areas in the United States with large Dominican populations. [1] [2]
Vitilla is a popular variation of stickball played primarily in the Dominican Republic and areas in the United States with large Dominican populations. [1] [2]
Overall rules and baserunning is roughly similar to basic forms of baseball, but there are only two bases in addition to home plate, only two or three fielders, a broomstick is used as a bat and a large plastic water bottle cap, called la vitilla, is used instead of a ball. The game also has aspects of Cricket, in that there are no walks or looking strike counts and strikeouts can be made by hitting a target behind the batter. The vitilla disk is difficult to hit, since it can float like a disk and can spin wildly at very high velocity, making for unpredictable fielding. The skill and coordination required in vitilla is credited with giving Dominican Major League Baseball players an advantage in hitting and fielding. [3] The game evolved from Dominican stickball in the 1970s, and had its first formal tournament in 2009. [4]
As a young street sport, there are no formal rules or governing sports authority to set rules. Beteyah, a company that makes vitilla equipment has suggested rules, [5] and another source of rules derives from the Red Bull Clasico De Vitilla tournaments. [3] Terminology is generally in Spanish, the primary language of most players.
Here is a list of ways vitilla differs from ordinary baseball:
Baseball statistics play an important role in evaluating the progress of a player or team.
Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two opposing teams, typically of nine players each, that take turns batting and fielding. The game proceeds when a player on the fielding team, called the pitcher, throws a ball which a player on the batting team tries to hit with a bat. The objective of the offensive team is to hit the ball into the field of play, allowing its players to run the bases, having them advance counter-clockwise around four bases to score what are called "runs". The objective of the defensive team is to prevent batters from becoming runners, and to prevent runners' advance around the bases. A run is scored when a runner legally advances around the bases in order and touches home plate. The team that scores the most runs by the end of the game is the winner.
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. Today, softball is played competitively at club levels, the college level, and the professional level.
Catcher is a position for a baseball or softball player. When a batter takes their turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to this primary duty, the catcher is also called upon to master many other skills in order to field the position well. The role of the catcher is similar to that of the wicket-keeper in cricket, but in cricket, wicketkeepers are increasingly known for their batting abilities.
In baseball, an out occurs when the umpire rules a batter or baserunner out. When a batter or runner is out, they lose their ability to score a run and must return to the dugout until their next turn at bat. When three outs are recorded in a half-inning, the batting team's turn expires.
The rules of baseball differ slightly from league to league, but in general share the same basic game play.
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.
Baseball and cricket are the best-known members of a family of related bat-and-ball games. Both have fields that are 400 feet (120 m) or more in diameter between their furthest endpoints, offensive players who can hit a thrown/"bowled" ball out of the field and run between safe areas to score runs (points) at the risk of being gotten out, and have a major game format lasting about 3 hours.
In the sports of baseball and softball, a batted ball is a pitch that has been contacted by the batter's bat. Depending on where the ball lands, a batted ball can become either a fair ball or a foul ball. If a batted ball is a fair ball, fielders attempt to get the batter out. A foul ball is assessed as a strike unless the batter has already accumulated two strikes, in which case the number of strikes does not increase. Batted balls are also classified by their trajectory. The most common of these trajectory-based classifications are fly balls, line drives, and ground balls.
Pesäpallo is a fast-moving bat-and-ball sport that is often referred to as the national sport of Finland and has some presence in other countries including Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, and Canada's northern Ontario. The game is similar to brännboll, rounders, and lapta, as well as baseball.
In baseball, the dead-ball era was the period from around 1900 to the emergence of Babe Ruth as a power hitter in 1919. That year, Ruth hit a then-league record 29 home runs. This era was characterized by low-scoring games and a lack of home runs. The lowest league run average in history was in 1908, when teams averaged only 3.4 runs per game. Teams played in spacious ball parks that limited hitting for power, and, compared to modern baseballs, the ball used then was "dead" both by design and from overuse. In addition, ball scuffing and adulteration by pitchers was not against the rules during this period.
The Knickerbocker Rules are a set of baseball rules formalized by William R. Wheaton and William H. Tucker of the Knickerbocker Base Ball Club in 1845. They have previously been considered to be the basis for the rules of the modern game, although this is disputed. The rules are informally known as the "New York style" of baseball, as opposed to other variants such as the "Massachusetts Game" and "Philadelphia town ball".
Bat-and-ball games are field games played by two opposing teams, in which the action starts when the defending team throws a ball at a dedicated player of the attacking team, who tries to hit it with a bat and run between various safe areas in the field to score runs (points), while the defending team can use the ball in various ways against the attacking team's players to force them off the field when they are not in safe zones, and thus prevent them from further scoring. The best known modern bat-and-ball games are cricket and baseball, with common roots in the 18th-century games played in England.
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.
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport that has many recreational variants, and is very related to the Olympic discipline of softball, with the two sports being administered internationally alongside Baseball5 by the World Baseball Softball Confederation.