Colour your baseball glove and ball.

Colour your baseball glove and ball.

Baseball is a team sport played on a special field called a baseball diamond. Players use a bat, batting helmet, ball, gloves, and bases. A baseball game is broken down into innings; in each inning each team bats and plays in the field once, there are nine innings in a game. One team tries to score points by hitting the ball; the other team is defending the field. Batters hit a thrown ball with a bat; once the ball is hit the player runs the bases and returns to the starting position; home plate. When a player runs all the bases and makes it back to home plate, they get a point. If the runner is tagged with the baseball by the defensive team before completing the run around the bases, the runner is out. After three outs, the inning moves forward and the teams switch places. The bases in a game of baseball are numbered counterclockwise from home plate; first, second and third. The batter stands on home plate to hit the ball, the pitcher stands on the pitcher s mound which is 60.5 feet from home plate and there is a catcher that crouches behind the batter to protect home plate and works with the pitcher. If a ball that has been hit lands to the right of the first base or to the left of third base, it is called a foul ball and does not count. The pitcher stands on the pitcher s mound and pitches the baseball towards the batter. The ball has to be thrown at a certain level and straight over home plate to be considered fair; this is called the strike zone. If the batter swings at a ball that is inside the strike zone and misses it is called a strike. When a player receives 3 strikes they are out and the next batter is up. When a batter doesn t swing at a ball that is outside of the strike zone then it is called a ball. If a batter gets four balls the batter gets to walk to first base and the next batter is up. There is an umpire that watches closely and announces results of each play. The team with the most points in the end wins.

The Player Positions: You can see there are nine players on the field, so it makes it quite the task for the batter to hit a ball to where there is no one playing. Here are the positions you see on the field. Center Field Plays in the middle of the outfield. Left Field Plays on the left side of the field, as seen by the batter. Right Field Plays on the right side of the field, as seen by the batter. First Baseman Fields balls that are batted near first base. Second Baseman Covers the area of the field between second base and first base. Third Baseman Covers the area around 3rd base. Shortstop Covers the area between third base and second base. Pitcher - Throws the ball to the catcher and attempts to make the batter swing and miss, or places pitches within the strike zone that are hard to hit. The Pitcher also fields the ball if hit in his direction. Catcher - Fields balls thrown by the pitcher that gets by the batter. The catcher will also field balls that are popped straight up in the air or behind home plate.

Fun Facts about Baseball: 1. A man named Abner Doubleday invented the game known as baseball in Cooperstown, New York, during the summer of 1839. 2. Major League Baseball league, known as the MLB was founded in 1876. 3. The average lifespan for a major league baseball is 6-7 pitches. The reason for this is; foul balls are lost to fans, homerun balls are always lost, and if a ball is scuffed the umpire will discard it. 4. Every single MLB baseball is rubbed in Lena Blackburne Baseball Rubbing Mud, a unique very fine mud only found in a secret location near Palmyra, New Jersey. Only one person knows the location of the mud, and he sells it to MLB every season 5. When you go to watch a professional sporting event there are usually thousands of people there watching. In 2011 the Florida Marlins played the Cincinnati Reds and broke the record for the LEAST amount of fans with only 347 in attendance! 6. During a typical MLB season, approximately 160,000 baseballs are used. 7. A Canadian named Glen Edwards Gorbous holds the record for the furthest thrown baseball, 445 feet and 10 inches. 8. In baseball there are two leagues that make up the MLB; American League and the National League. The World Series is a 7 game series where a team from the American League and a team from the National League play to see who the best is. 9. The most World Series titles held by one team is 26, the team that holds the record is the New York Yankees. 10. The National Baseball Hall Of Fame and Museum was created in 1935 to celebrate baseballs 100th anniversary. The Hall Of Fame is located in Cooperstown, NY.

Activities: Run the Bases: Set out 4 bases and have the children practice running/crawling all the bases back to home plate. Use a timer to time how fast they can do it! You can use whatever you like as bases; pillows, stones, pylons, and toys etc. Batter Up: Let children practice hitting the ball. You don t have to have the standard bat and ball, they could use their arm and a beach ball, a tennis ball and a plastic bat, wrapping paper tube and beach ball, etc. Play Catch: Let children practice throwing/rolling balls and catching them. You can use any type of ball that you have, soccer ball, beach ball, tennis ball, etc. Count how many times the children can catch the ball, measure the distance they can throw the ball. Ball Player Craft: Use large sheets of butcher paper, or chalk on a sidewalk and outline each child. Let them colour or paint themselves as a baseball player. Pin the Baseball on the Field: Draw a baseball field on a large poster board. Cut out pictures or drawings of a baseball and place tape on the back so they can stick to the poster of the field. Blindfold the children one at a time and have them take turns pinning the baseball on the field. They get certain points for different plays; if they pin their ball near first base-one point; at home plate-four points, etc. Read Books About Baseball: 1. Goodnight Baseball by Michael Dahl 2. Dino Baseball by Lisa Wheeler and Barry Gott 3. Little Baseball by Brad Herzog and Doug Bowles 4. This is Baseball by Margaret Blackstone and John O Brien 5. My Baseball Book by Gail Gibbons