Bat-and-ball games


Bat-and-ball games, or safe haven games, are field games played by two opposing teams. Typically, action starts when the fielding team delivers a ball toward a dedicated player of the batting team, who tries to hit it with a bat and then run between various safe areas in the field to score runs. The defending team can use the ball in various ways against the attacking team's players to force them off the field when they are not in safe zones, and thus prevent them from further scoring. The best known modern bat-and-ball games are cricket and baseball, with common roots in the 18th-century games played in England.

Roles

The teams alternate between "batting", sometimes called "in at bat" or simply in, and "fielding", also called "out in the field" or out. Only the batting team may score, but teams have equal opportunities in both roles. The game is counted rather than timed. The action starts when a player on the fielding team puts the ball in play with a delivery whose restriction depends on the game. A player on the batting team attempts to strike the delivered ball, commonly with a "bat", which is a club whose dimensions and other aspects are governed by the rules of the game. If the ball is not fairly delivered to the batter, then penalties generally are awarded that help the batting team score.
The batter generally has an obligation to hit certain balls that are delivered within his reach, and must hit the ball so that it is not caught by a fielder before it touches the ground. The most desirable outcome for the batter is generally to hit the ball out of the field, as this results in automatically scoring runs; however, in certain bat-and-ball games, this can result in a penalty against the batter. If the ball is struck into the field, then the batter may become a runner trying to reach a safe haven or "base"/"ground". While in contact with a base, the runner is "safe" from the fielding team and in a position to score runs. Leaving a safe haven places the runner in danger of being put out. The teams switch roles when the fielding team 'puts out'/'gets out' enough of the batting team's players, which varies by game.
In modern baseball, the fielders put three players out. In cricket, they "dismiss" all players but one, though in some forms of cricket, there is a limit on the number of deliveries that each team can have, such that the fielding team can become the batting team without getting anyone out. Some games permit multiple runners and some have multiple bases to run in sequence. Batting may occur, and running begin, at one of the bases. The movement between those "safe havens" is governed by the rules of the particular sport. The game ends when the losing team has completed the maximum number of innings, which may range from 1 to 9 or more. Ties are generally broken by allowing each team to have an additional turn to score.
Some variations of bat-and-ball games do not feature bats, with batters instead using parts of their bodies to hit the ball; these variations may also give the batter possession of the ball at the start of each play, eliminating the defensive team's role in starting the action. A prominent example of this is Baseball5, one of the main sporting disciplines governed by the World Baseball Softball Confederation along with baseball and softball.

History

The history of baseball's formation and rise in popularity took place in England and then America. Predecessors of baseball were brought to America during the colonial era by English immigrants who played games similar to rounders; at the time, cricket was significantly more popular in the United States, since it was one of the main sports throughout the British Empire. However, the main format of cricket was first-class cricket, in which games lasted multiple days; baseball by comparison was a game that lasted less than two hours. Because of the vast difference in the duration of the two sports and for other reasons, such as the rising American desire to have some type of national game distinct from England's games, baseball began to grow in America, especially among some of the non-English demographics. Some attempts were made to nativize cricket in a way that would reduce its length and other perceived disadvantages relative to baseball; one example of this was wicket, an American variation of cricket which could be played in an afternoon.
But by the time of the 1860s Civil War, baseball had begun to overtake cricket in popularity; one reason for this was that troops during the Civil War preferred to play baseball, as it did not require a specialized playing surface like the cricket pitch. After the Civil War, baseball became a much more organized sport than cricket in America, with more money and competition available to baseball players across the country; thus, several professional cricket players switched to playing baseball, and cricket faded away in America. Baseball then began to spread throughout the Pacific Rim and the Americas, supported by the contemporary westward expansion of the United States. Over time, several variations of baseball appeared, with some being informal, others becoming professional sports in their own right, and some even taking root overseas.
In other countries that were part of the British Empire, cricket slowly emerged as the game of choice for the colonizers to spread their culture and values among the colonized. Some of the colonized people adapted to playing cricket in order to win the favor of the British, while in other cases, colonized peoples played cricket as a way of beating the British at their own sports, and thus proving themselves as equals. This helped to cement cricket as part of the national culture of several countries that later won their independence from the British.

Contemporary era

In 1971, the ODI format of cricket was first played internationally; the ODI format shortened cricket from a five-day long game to a one-day long game. In 2003, a new format of cricket called T20 cricket emerged which was designed to last only about three hours. By this time, the average MLB game had gone from being two hours long to about three hours long, so the two sports now had formats that were of a comparable duration. Later on, the T10 format of cricket, in which games last less than two hours, emerged at a domestic level, with leagues being started for it in several major cricket-playing countries.

Types of bat-and-ball games

There is a great deal of variation among bat-and-ball games; for example, more runs are generally scored in a cricket match than dozens of baseball games combined, and while a T10 cricket match generally ends in 90 minutes, a Test cricket batter may bat for hours over several consecutive days.
Overall, most bat-and-ball games can be categorized as being longball, baseball-like or cricket-like, with many of them following the same basic outline:
  • Baseball-like games: The batter must generally "put the ball into play" by hitting it, generally into a limited area of the field of play, before being able to run around the various safe havens. In many situations, runners are "forced" to advance to the next safe haven, with runners being put out when an opponent with the ball either touches the base they are forced to advance to before they do, or touches them while they are not safe. A run is scored when a runner reaches the final base, which is generally the fourth base, with the runner then leaving the field until their next turn as a batter.
  • *The batter may have a limited number of attempts to hit the ball into the proper area of the field, with the risk of being out if they fail. Similarly, the pitcher may be punished for throwing the ball out of the batter's reach too many times, with the batter then receiving a free pass to the first base.
  • *Some variations of baseball, such as Tee-ball and Baseball5, do not feature a pitcher, with batters potentially automatically out for failing to legally hit the ball.
  • Longball subfamily : Two safe havens and a field between them. The aim of the fielding team was to win the position of the batting team, while the aim of the batting team was to defend its position at the home base. One signature form of getting out attacking players is by hitting runners with the ball. For scoring a run, runner must make a full trip back-and-forth between both safe havens.
  • Cricket-like games: The ball is in play after being delivered regardless of whether or where to it is struck, meaning runs can be scored off of every delivery. A run is scored every time a batsman reaches a safe haven other than the one they were last in, with there being two safe havens, though the rules usually require that two batsmen do this for the run to be scored. Players from the batting team are dismissed when the ball touches the wicket in a safe haven with no batsman in it.
  • * For games that are meant to be finished in a shorter time span, as it is often much more difficult to get batsmen out in cricket-like games than in baseball-like games, there is generally either a time limit or a limit on how many legal deliveries each team needs to perform while fielding. Illegal deliveries are deliveries which are not within the batter's reach, or which are not delivered at a reasonable distance/angle to the batter.
  • As a broad rule, baseball-type games favour the player who delivers the ball, and a scoring success for the batting player is notable; in cricket-type games, the player batting is favoured and scoring is regular and common, while a success for the player delivering the ball is notable.

    Common features

This list may not apply to all bat-and-ball games, but covers certain features common to many of them:

Running rules

  • Only the "first" player to reach a safe haven is protected by it.
  • * Schlagball and Lapta allow multiple runners at a safe haven.
  • Runners may be called out for passing other runners; that is, if one runner improperly advances further around the safe havens than another runner.
  • * In cricket, there is no such penalty.