Baseball is a beloved sport that has been around for centuries, and it continues to be popular at all age and skill levels. It is a game played with a bat, a ball, and gloves between two teams of nine players each on a field with four white bases arranged in the shape of a diamond. Teams alternate positions as batters (attack) and field players (defense) and swap places when three members of the batting team are “eliminated”. As batters, players try to hit the ball out of reach of the field team and make a complete circuit around the bases to “run”.
The team that scores the most runs in nine innings (times at bat) wins the game. Baseball has had an immense impact on American culture, reforming the nation's calendar and providing an opportunity for people to come together and share powerful common experiences. It has also been interwoven with important social and cultural divisions, such as ethnic groups in the country's ghettos. In addition, baseball parks have become important local civic monuments and repositories of collective memories.
At the beginning of the 21st century, baseball continued to face serious problems, but the sport was gaining popularity around the world and it could still be firmly argued that baseball held a special place in the hearts and minds of the American people. Kids often grow up playing baseball with many kids playing T-ball at age 4 or 5 and then move on to coaching fields, player fields, minor leagues, high school, college, and major leagues. The minor leagues also provide small towns with the opportunity to have their own professional baseball team and have been an important part of maintaining baseball's popularity. Overall, baseball is a sport that combines many different elements - physical skill, strategy, teamwork, history, culture - making it an enjoyable pastime for all ages.
