Game played with a bat and ball between two teams of nine players (or 10, if a designated hitter bats and runs for the pitcher).
Baseball is played on a large field that has four bases laid out in a square, positioned like a diamond, whose outlines mark the course a runner must take to score. Teams alternate positions as batters and fielders, exchanging places when three members of the batting team are put out. Batters try to hit a pitched ball out of reach of the fielding team and run a complete circuit around the bases for a run. Every runner who crosses the plate earns one point; thus, if a player hits to second and the player after him hits a home run, two players cross the plate and two runs are scored. The team that scores the most runs in nine innings (times at bat) wins the game. If a game is tied, extra innings are played until the tie is broken. Baseball is traditionally considered the national pastime of the U.S. It was once thought to have been invented in 1839 by Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, N.Y., but it is more likely that baseball developed from an 18th-century English game called rounders that was modified by Alexander Cartwright. The first professional association was formed in 1871; in 1876 it became the National League. A rival American League was founded in 1900, and since 1903 (except for 1904 and 1994) the winning teams of each league have played a postseason championship known as the World Series. The Baseball Hall of Fame is located in Cooperstown. Professional baseball leagues also exist in a number of other countries. In Latin America such leagues exist in the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela, and these four leagues meet in the Caribbean Series each February. Other professional baseball leagues are in Asia. Japan has two leagues, the Central and the Pacific, which face off in the Japan Series every November, and South Korea and Taiwan also have baseball leagues.