Why Baseball?
Baseball, the traditional sport of the United States. Started over a hundred years ago, a little like some form of simplified cricket.
Each team in the MLB (Major League Baseball) plays 162 games per season, starting in spring (March time) and going through to autumn (October). You’re a really good team if you win 90 of those games (thus also losing 72 games) and you are a great side if you win 100+ games. You’re a rubbish side if you’re only winning 60 games a season.
The Structure of the Baseball Season
There are 30 professional sides in the MLB. For historical reasons which don’t make much sense to someone from outside the States and beginning to get to know baseball (marketing, political wrangling, people not getting along in 1890 something), the 30 sides are divided into two leagues - the National League and the American League. So 15 teams in each league and it is not divided up geographically. For example, the New York Yankees are in the American League whilst the New York Mets are in the National League. Anyway, these 15 teams are further divided up into three divisions. These are drawn up geographically (more or less), and each league has three divisions called East, Central and West.
So, three divisions of 5 teams split geographically across the country (and it’s a big country). 162 games I hear you say? So who do they play? The 4 teams of their division over and over again? Well, no, it's complicated. Unlike a normal league in football or rugby, say, no team has the same fixture list. The 162 games gets broken down into a real mix, as follows:
- 13 games are played against each of the four other teams in their own division (52 games total),
- 6 or 7 games against each of the other ten teams in their own league (64 games),
- 4 games against one "geographic rival" from the other league, and 3 games each against the other fourteen teams from the other league (46 games).
So as you can see, it depends on which division you are in, then where you are based, and finally which league you are in as to the teams you face during the season.
So what happens after you play your 162 games? Each team will have a win and loss record expressed as the win number first, e.g. 81-81. This is often expressed also as their winning percentage and baseball loves these shown as .500 which is a 50% winning percentage. Anyway, back to the season. Each team has its win and loss record and is ranked in its division accordingly. Now it gets complicated.
There are playoffs to decide who wins the season (the “Postseason”).
Who gets to go to the Postseason and how is it structured?
The winner of each division will go to the Postseason. Then all the other teams in a league will be ranked together based on their win-loss record. The 3 teams with the best record will be awarded “wild-cards” to enter into the postseason, leaving 6 teams in total from each league to go into the postseason where each team receives a seeding. The teams from each league are separated and only play other teams from their leagues in the postseason until the Conference Series Final which decides the representative of each league to play in the World Series - the final of baseball.
Each league uses the same seeding format below:
- No. 1 seed: Best record in their league
- No. 2 seed: Second-best record for a division winner
- No. 3 seed: Third-best record for a division winner
- No. 4 seed: Best record for Wild Card teams
- No. 5 seed: Second-best record for Wild Card teams
- No. 6 seed: Third-best record for Wild Card teams
6 plays 3 and 5 plays 4 in the Wild Card round (best of 3 matches). In the next round (called the Divisional Series (best of 5 matches) 1 plays winner of 5v4 and 2 plays winner of 3v6. The winners of the Divisional series play in the Conference Series (best of 7 matches) and the winners of the Conference Series play the World Series - AL v NL (best of 7 matches).
Simple.
Why baseball?
So, straight away we have an indication that baseball is a bit different from the norm of other sports. Not only do the teams have different fixture lists, but there are 162 games in a space of about 6 months, so teams are playing about 4 or 5 times a week. This will impact on aspects of the game which make it particularly interesting which we´ll get into in a bit.
The sport itself is simple. As someone once said, “You throw the ball, you hit the ball, you catch the ball”. You hit the ball well and you get to run around the bases before back “home” earning a run for your team. You hit the ball really well out of the pitch, you get a home run and every previous batter who is on a base gets to go home and so do you, earning the relevant number of runs for your team. You hit the ball quite well in the air and someone catches it, you are “out”, you let the ball go past you in the strike zone without hitting it three times, you are “out”. Three outs per innings, 9 innings per side make up a baseball match. No draws, keep playing until there’s a winner.
That’s about it, it’s really simple. Unlike cricket there are not a myriad of scoring options for the batter. To the spectator that stumbles across a baseball game, one might think it is a long time of not very much happening mixed with very occasional bursts of excitement.
So, why is it a cool sport to follow and watch? A few reasons, but obviously it is subjective. The first thing to note is that, yes, it is a bit slower than other sports. A match lasts around 3 hours, so less than a T20 cricket match but longer and more sedate than a football or rugby match. The rhythm is relaxed, and a match has a unique manner of unfolding. However, all the time, something is happening.
Basically the key to watching a game of baseball and having a good time is to watch it the other way around to cricket. What does this mean? Well, in essence, cricket is a challenge between the bowler and batter, as it is in baseball. However, in cricket, the batter wins the majority of the battles, whereas in baseball, the pitcher wins the majority of the battles. So, if you watch baseball just for the hits, it would be like watching cricket just for the wickets, and would be rather dull. Instead, what you have to do is watch the pitcher. The pitcher is the most important person by a distance. Why? Because hitting a baseball is very, very hard. The best batters in the world over the course of their careers hit the ball well enough to reach a base in 3 out of every 10 times they go out to bat. And as for home runs, the best batter last year hit 41 home runs in 643 times at bat.
So batting is tricky, but runs are scored. So what should we be looking out for?
The count. The count is crucial to be aware of and makes every pitch interesting. Why? Because a baseball is very hard to hit. Pitchers are capable of throwing the ball around 95 mph and with dip and swerve. Human reaction times are not quick enough to watch the ball and swing where it is going. You have to anticipate where the ball will be to swing in time, and you judge that on various factors, including how the ball is coming out of the hand, starting position, seam position, etc.
However, by far the most important manner of knowing where the ball will be is to read where the pitcher will throw the ball beforehand. How can a batter do this? The count. Pitchers are aiming to get a batter out on strikes or poor contact (which leads the ball to go to a fielder to be caught, or thrown out at first base). A strike is where the pitcher swings at the ball and misses, or the batter does not swing and the ball passes him by in the “strike zone”. The strike zone is an imaginary rectangle shaped space which represents the sweet spot of the hitting zone. A ball in the strike zone is a lot easier to hit. A ball which passes the batter who does not swing and does not pass through the strike zone is known as a “ball”. If a batter receives 4 “balls” he is entitled to walk to first base automatically.
The count is therefore the number of balls and strikes which a batter has faced and is expressed as two numbers, balls first followed by strikes. So a 2-2 count would mean that a batter has received 2 balls and 2 strikes. A batter does not want to swing at a “ball”pitch as it is outside the strike zone and therefore a lot more difficult to hit the ball so that he can either run to first or hit a home run. Therefore, in practice, a batter will try to read the deliveries, leave the “balls” alone, and anticipate a pitch in the strike zone to hit for a home run or to get on base. If a batter gets to 3-0 for example in the count, it means he has faced 3 balls and 0 strikes. This is being “ahead in the count” and is good for the batter. He now knows that the next pitches could well be in the strike zone, otherwise he could not swing, receive a 4th “ball” and thus receive a “walk” to first base. (the pitcher could bluff and pitch outside the strike zone trying to induce a weak contact hit as the batter is likely to swing thinking the ball will be in the strike zone). Anyway, the batter when he is “up in the count” has the advantage, and vice versa if he is “down in the count”. At 0-2 the pitcher has the luxury of being able to pitch balls outside the strike zone and the batter knows that one more strike and he is out.
So each pitch tells a little story of the battle of minds between the pitcher and batter. Of course, the pitcher can be so good sometimes that he could tell the batter what he is going to do beforehand and it still wouldn’t help. That’s just a very brief intro into what you should be looking out for during a baseball match. The battle between the pitcher and the batter. A top pitcher of course has an arsenal of pitches at his disposal, pitches he throws straight and fast, pitches which swerve and dip at the last moment leaving the batter swinging at thin air. An Ace, a great pitcher is a work of art, and a joy to behold. Every game starts with the possibility that that will be the day in which the starting pitcher pitches “a perfect game”, when no batter gets to first base for whatever reason.
Teams will usually have a rotation of about 5 starting pitchers as a pitcher needs about 5 days to rest between matches. The starters will start the matches (duh), and then if they tire or are pitching badly, they will replace the pitcher with a reliever (he relieves the starter from his role). They (or a variety of relievers) will then pitch until normally in the 9th inning out comes a “closer”, normally a pitcher who is very very fast, and he has the job of closing out the game.
How the team managers utilise their pitching staff is of great interest, and how they line up their starters when teams get to the postseason is particularly interesting. Great pitchers will on average give up around 3 runs per 9 innings. That’s pretty good. Lights out pitching generally means the other team won’t get a sniff.
So anyway that’s pitching and roughly how the game works. Next time we’ll look at another fascinating aspect of the game: what happens in the offices and boardrooms - how to construct a team which can win the World Series.
Easter Egg - Championship Manager fiction