Baseball (野球) is hugely popular in Japan, leaving other sports such as football behind by a large margin. Almost every Japanese city, university or high school has its own baseball team, often sponsored by big companies. As for Fukuoka, the team that plays inside the giant Yafuoku! Dome are the SoftBank Hawks, who managed to get into the First Japanese Baseball League in 2015. The Hawks as a team are a topic for another day. This time we will focus on explaining the rules to people who might not be familiar with baseball.
There’s no doubt that baseball is a complex game with hard-to-understand rules if you haven’t learned from a young age. There are many more rules than the ones explained below, and just as many exceptions to said rules.

Here’s a very quick rundown for beginners.
In a baseball match, two teams alternate between offense and defense. There are nine players on each side. The goal is to score more runs than the opponent, which is achieved by passing all four bases on the field. The defense wears leather gloves to catch the ball. A baseball has a diameter of about 9 cm with red stitching. The offense uses bats which are made of wood in professional plays, and mostly aluminium at amateur level.

Let’s take a look at the actual baseball field. The area closest to the bases, usually dirt, is called infield. The grass area beyond the infield is called outfield.

Inside the square indicated by the four bases, stands the pitcher on an artificial mound and throws the ball towards the home plate. The batter, of the opposite team, tries to hit the ball as far as possible. In case the batter does not hit the ball, the catcher, who stands behind the batter, stops it. The only players inside the infield are the first baseman, second baseman, shortstop (between second and third base) and the third baseman. There are three outfielders called left fielder, center fielder and right fielder.

A professional baseball match has a total of nine innings with each one being split into two parts – top and bottom. First, the visiting team plays offense while the home team plays defense. During the second half, the teams switch. Each half is played until the team on the offense has three outs. A team has nine players in its batting order to which it must stick throughout the match. A play begins with a batter waiting to hit the ball thrown by the pitcher. If the batter hits the ball into the field, he starts running and tries to pass any many bases as possible.

A batter is out if he gets three strikes (e.g. missing the ball, hitting the ball outside the strike zone). If the pitcher were to throw a fourth ball (i.e. a pitch landed outside the strike zone), the batter is automatically allowed to go to first base.

When a batter starts running, he is henceforth referred to as a runner. Runners attempt to reach a base, where they are safe and can remain on until the next batter comes up. The defensive players try to prevent this by putting the runner out, who then must leave the field. Runs are scored after a player has made a full round and reaches home plate without being put out, or before there are three outs.

If a player hits the ball over the outfield fence in fair territory (indicated by the foul lines), he is credited a home run. This allows the batter to pass all four bases, resulting in an automatic run.

There are many ways for the team in defense to put out a runner.
The three most common ways are strikeout (a batter misses three pitches), forceout and tagout (a defender reaches a base with the ball before the runner does) or flyout (a defender catches the ball mid-flight).

This is quite a lot to understand, so if we got you interested in this fascinating sport, why not watch a couple of games online, or even better – go to an actual match!

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