This photo shows two players from the Yankees team which is on defense at the time the photo was taken.  The jumping player is Mickey Mantle who was playing the center field position, and the player with the number 9 on his uniform is Hank Bauer, the right fielder for the Yankees.  Mickey Mantle is jumping to try and catch a fly ball, which has just been hit by a member of the Chicago White Sox, the team on offense.
 

In the graphic just below, what is shown is the result of a completed game.  (This has no relation to the photo on the left.  They are not from the same game.)

By the end of a game, the scoreboard might look like the above.  In this game between the New York Yankees, on top as the visiting team, and the New York Mets as the home team, in the last game of the year 2000 World Series, the Yankees won by a score of 4 to 2.  This is shown in the column on the right, under "R" meaning runs.  You can see that the Yankees scored 1 run in the 2nd inning, 1 run in the 6th inning, and 2 runs in the 9th inning.  The Mets scored 2 runs in the 2nd inning, and no more runs after that.  After 9 innings of play, the score was 4 - 2, with the winner being the New York Yankees, the team on the top line.

The column "H" stands for number of Hits, and the column "E" stands for number of Errors.  The "H" will be explained below on this page, and the letter "E" is explained on the page on Defense.  The letter "R" was explained on the previous page about the Game.

In each inning, each team will be on offense, "at bat", once, and then on defense, "on the field", once.  Whenever one team is on offense, the other will be on defense, and then vice versa.  How they go from offense to defense will be explained next.

 Pitcher - in action. . .Batter - ready

Batter - swings and then run to 1st base.  The catcher squatting behind the batter is on the defense team, and his job is to catch any ball missed by the batter.  The other player in the white uniform on the left of the photo is the first base coach of the team on offense.  He is a non active player, but can stand in that location to give signals and other advice to members of the offense team at bat or on the bases.

Click on the link below to view a moving sequence for a pitcher pitching and a batter swinging the bat.  Use your "Back" button to return to this page. 

  [ Pitcher / Batter Motion ]
 
 
 

If the batter is successful in striking the ball with the bat, and sending it into the fair area of play, the batter runs to first base and tries to arrive at first base before the ball arrives at first base.  The players on the field, on defense, try to field the ball and throw or otherwise get the ball to first base before the batter arrives to first base.  If the batter arrives first, he is declared to be "safe".  The batter then becomes a runner at first base, and the next batter from his team comes up to bat.

A score is made whenever a runner from first base can run to second base, then third base, and then return to home base, where he had originally started as the batter.  Home base is also called "home plate", because it is a mostly flat rubber plate stuck in the ground.  Home plate is that white object near the batter, no. 27, right foot.  The other bases are the white squares about one foot square each, solid objects about 2 inches thick lying on top of the ground. 

The most spectacular run to be made is when the batter hits the ball hard and far enough that the ball sails out of the fair area of play into the stands beyond the edge of the playing field.  This is called a "home run", because the batter is awarded a passage without hindrance from home base, to 1st base, to 2nd base, to 3rd base, and return to home base immediately to earn a run.  If there had been other runners from his team already on base when the home run is struck, they also traverse the bases to return home for runs to be counted also.

At any time if the batted ball is caught in the air by a player on defense, before the ball has touched the playing field, the batter is considered to be "out", and is "retired".  He cannot go to first base, and leaves the playing field to return to his team's dugout.  The next batter on the offense team then comes up to home base to bat.

A "hit" is when the batter has hit a ball into the fair play area, and the ball touches the ground without a defense team player having caught it in the air, and the batter has run to first base before the ball has arrived to first base.  This hit is called a "single", meaning the batter has made it on this play to a single base.  If the batter has run to first base, then continued running to second base, arriving there before the ball, he has hit a "double", i.e. made two bases to second base.  A "triple" is when the batter continues running past second base, all the way to third base.  Hitting a triple is very hard to do, because it means that the ball has been hit far into the outer edges of the fair play outfield, and the fielders are unable to retrieve the ball and throw back to the infield before the batter has reach third base, where he is only one base away from scoring.

Returning to the description of the scoreboard above, the numbers under the column "H" means the total number of hits made by that team, where a hit can refer to a single, double, triple, or home run.  All are called a hit.  Thus, the team on the top line, the Yankees, had a total of 7 hits, while the home team, the Mets, had 8 hits.
 

  This batter has just hit the ball, run to first base, and is running around first base to try and continue onto second base.
 

  Runner sliding head first into 3rd base.  The third baseman of the defense has the ball inside his glove and trying to tag out the runner.

  Runner sliding into home plate, trying to touch the plate with his foot, while the catcher is waiting for the ball to arrive so he can try to tag the runner out before the runner touches home plate.

In the second photo on the left, the base runner is trying to get to third base, which is the white object just beyong the runner's hands,  and is sliding head first in order to gain some extra speed and to make his body a smaller target.  If the runner can reach the base, even with just his hands touching the base before the defense team's third baseman can tag the runner with the ball which is in his baseball glove, then the runner is considered "safe" at third.  The third baseman, who is "protecting the base" is trying to prevent the runner from reaching the safe area of the base.  If the third baseman can tag the runner with the ball when the runner is not in contact with the base, then the runner is considered "out".  In some cases, the third baseman can himself touch the base before the runner has reached the base, the runner is also "out".

Having a runner reach third base is an important factor for the offense, because then the runner is only one base removed from returning to home base, which means a run, or a score, for the offense.  In the lower picture, the runner is sliding feet first to attempt to touch the home plate, and if he is successful in touching the home plate before the ball reaches home plate, then the runner is safe, and a run is made for a score.  Note the shape of the home plate.

A runner on any base can try to advance to the next base at his own choosing whenever the ball is "live".  The ball is considered live at all times except when the umpires (the men in black) call the ball "dead".  The ball is "live" when, for example, the pitcher is ready to pitch or is in the act of pitching the ball to the batter, the swings and either misses or has struck the ball.  If the struck ball lands in fair play area of the field, the runner must advance to the next base if there is a following runner coming to his currently occupied base.  The defense team players chase after the ball, "field the ball", and try to tag any of the runners to make an "out", thereby preventing a runner from reaching the safety of a base.

If the batted ball is caught in the air by a defense team player, the batter is considered out, and each runner must return to his original base, touch the base once, before attempting to advance at the runner's option.  The runner may stay in the safe area of the base and not advance if he so chooses.

There are many other possibilities and situations that arise when runners are on base and trying to advance to the next or even more bases, that it would take much longer to explain all the intricacies.  However, when watching a game, the key things to look for is how the batter can get onto first base, or even second or third base if the batter has hit the ball a long ways, and how runners on base can advance to the following bases, and eventually return to home base for a score.