LESSON NOTES Culture Class S1 #1 Top 5 Most Important Things to Know about Baseball CONTENTS 2 Cultural Insight # 1 COPYRIGHT © 2013 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CULTURAL INSIGHT Did you Know? In this lesson, we'll introduce you to baseball by talking about the top five most important things to know about baseball. These aren't the only things that you need to know but our Top 5 list will help you talk about baseball in English with your friends and understand it better. #5: Bats and balls The first thing we are going to talk about is "how to play." Baseball is a "ball game" or a game that's played with a ball. What's unique about baseball is that you also play with a bat. A bat is the large wooden club used to hit the ball. You've probably heard the phrase "at bat." "At bat" means that that person or that team is the only the team that can score. "At bat" means that they have the bat or that they team with players batting. #4: Team game The second thing to understand is that baseball is a team game. More specifically that there are two teams that play against each other. A unique aspect about baseball is that only one team can try to score at a time. In other words, the teams take turns trying to score. You could think of it as offense and defense. The defense is the team on the field and the offense is the team "at bat." So, when a team is on the field, they can't score but when a team is "at bat" they can score. #3: In field vs. out field Next we'll look at our third topic, which is the "in field" and the "out field." This only applies to the team that is on on the field. A baseball field is divided into two parts - the "in-field" and the "out-field." The "in-field" is marked by first, second, and third bases and the home plate. There are 6 players in the "in-field"—the first baseman, the second baseman, the third baseman, the shortstop (who is between second and third base), the pitcher, and the catcher. In the "out-field," there is the left fielder, the center fielder, and the right fielder. There are a total of 9 players on field in baseball. Each position on the field has specific responsibilities but they all have the same goal—to get back "at bat." To do that, the team that is on the field has to get three "outs." An "out" is when someone from the team "at bat" has one of their scoring opportunities blocked. For example, someone "at bat" has three chances to swing and hit the ball. If they swing three times but don't hit the ball then their chance is over and they are "out." For the teams to change position from on field to off field, (or offense to defense) they have to get the team "at bat" "out" three times. The many ways to get "out" is beyond the scope of this lesson. ENGLI S HCLAS S 101.COM CULTURE CLAS S S 1 #1 - TOP 5 MOS T I MPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT BAS EBALL 2 #2: Runs Speaking of things that are beyond the scope of this lesson, one of those things is baseball acronyms. One of the difficult parts of understanding people when they talk about baseball is the acronyms they use. There are many and it can be hard to know what people are talking about. One of the most important acronyms is "RBI" which stands for "Runs Batted In." This is one way that baseball fans say "points scored." They do this because the scoring system in baseball is not as simple as it is in basketball or football. For example, a player could be at bat with three other players already on the bases. Then, he hits the ball and gets to first base and the person who was on third base gets to home plate and scores a point. The batter himself, didn't make it to home plate, so by normal calculations, he didn't score. However, a point was scored because of his hit. In baseball, that point is attributed to that hitter even though he didn't actually cross the plate. The only time a hit will directly reflect a point scored hit is with a "home run." #1: T he Home Run Which brings us to our last topic—the most famous part of baseball—the home run. The home run is the dream of most baseball players and most fans love to see home runs. A home run is when a batter hits the ball so hard and so far that the batter gets to run around all the bases and score a point. Most often, this happens when the batter hits the ball beyond the outfield into the stands. Home runs can also be very useful strategically. For example, if the first person who bats hits a home run, then one point is scored. However, if the fourth person at bat hits a home run and the "bases are loaded," which means that the previous players are on the bases, then the home run scores four points. This is very important because, in a normal Major League Baseball game, each team typically only makes 4 or 5 points so one home run could determine who wins the game. Baseball coaches often try to plan the order players will bat so that a situation like this can happen. ENGLI S HCLAS S 101.COM CULTURE CLAS S S 1 #1 - TOP 5 MOS T I MPORTANT THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT BAS EBALL 3 LESSON NOTES Culture Class S1 #2 Top 5 Biggest Rivalries in Baseball CONTENTS 2 Cultural Insight # 2 COPYRIGHT © 2013 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. CULTURAL INSIGHT Did you Know? #5: At hlet ics v. Angels Our number five biggest rivalry in baseball is the Athletics versus the Angels. The rivalry between the Athletics and the Angels is not of the storybook kind. It doesn't have any outright good guys or bad guys nor is it one that has lasted for decades on end. In fact, this rivalry is between two relatively minor teams. What makes this such an excellent rivalry is how evenly matched these 2 teams are. Usually, each game is only won by a single point and often in extra innings. Over the past several years, they have competed again and again with the Athletics winning one game, and the Angels winning the next. Since both teams are in California, the rivalry also becomes a local rivalry between the fans. And more often than not, one of these 2 teams wins their division. #4: Phillies v. Mets Our number four biggest rivalry in baseball is the Phillies versus the Mets. This rivalry is a longer-term rivalry than the Athletics and Angels. The Mets are one of the best teams in baseball. However, in recent years, the Mets haven't been doing very well. For example: A good example rivalry game happened Thursday, July 5 of 2012. After 5 seasons of nearly constant losses to the Phillies, the Mets were able to beat the Phillies in a 6 to 5 victory. The Phillies were down the entire game but always close. In the 9th inning David Wright hit a the game winning point to win the game for the Mets. #3: Cardinals v. Cubs Our number four biggest rivalry in baseball is the Cardinals versus the cubs. This rivalry is one of the older rivalries in baseball. Depending on who you ask, the rivalry goes as far back as 1875 but the first real battle was in 1885. No matter how you look at it, a very long time ago. Since then the two teams have exchanged "dominance." The Cubs seemed to beat the Cardinals nearly every game for nearly a decade only to have the Cardinals win a game, and then keep winning for years. For example: The rivalry between the Cardinals and the Cubs is often credited as helping to revive the sport. A nearly year-long players strike in the early 1990s caused American interest in baseball to reach an all time low. However, Mark McGwire (of the Cardinals) and Sammy Sosa (of the Cubs) battled in a race to break the home run record. The record was tied and broken first by Mark McGwire. Classically, this happened during two games between the Cardinals and the Cubs in 1998. #2: Yankees v. Red Socks ENGLI S HCLAS S 101.COM CULTURE CLAS S S 1 #2 - TOP 5 BIGGES T RI VALRI ES I N BAS EBALL 2 Our number two biggest rivalry in baseball is the Yankees and the Red Socks. Currently, this is one of the most entertaining rivalries in baseball. Especially when you ask a journalist or someone who covers baseball, the Yankees Red Socks rivalry seems almost to be the only rivalry in baseball worth talking about. That isn't true as you'll see in our next topic, however, this is a very good rivalry. Part if why it is so good is because it's old. The Yankee/Red Sock rivalry started around 100 years ago during the Babe Ruth era. The other part is because it's emotional. To be realistic, the Yankees are, by far, a consistently better team. Since the rivalry began, the Yankees have amassed 26 World Series titles while the Red Socks have only 1.