Learn English: Baseball Vocabulary, Expressions, Rules, and Culture

Hi, everybody. Welcome to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. In today's video, I'm going to talk

to you about baseball. Now, I know that some of you might not be interested in sports in

general or in this particular sport, but it's still a good lesson to watch. One reason is

it's a good listening practice, but another reason is that a lot of words from baseball

are actually used in everyday conversations and everyday situations. People love to use

sports analogies when they're describing situations in real life, and especially baseball has

a lot of terms and a lot of expressions that people apply to everyday situations. So, it's

still good to watch just for the English, plus a little bit of an introduction to the

sport can't hurt either. So, that's what we're going to do here. I'm just going to give you

a bit of an introduction to the game so you have a general idea. Keep in mind that if

you're coming to live in the U.S. or even in Canada, baseball is a very, very popular

sport. In fact, it's called America's favorite pastime. Americans love baseball. In Canada,

you know, it's still popular, but not as popular. Canada only has one professional baseball

team, and that's in Toronto. America has a lot of baseball teams. And so, pastime basically

means hobby or a way to pass the time, so doing something enjoyable or fun. And we're

going to talk about the MLB, Major League Baseball. So, this is the American league.

Of course, baseball is also popular in Asia, in Japan, in Korea, etc., but the most popular

league is in the U.S. and Canada, and all the best players try to come and play here.

So, the whole point of the season, of the baseball season, I think they play 162 games

per season, and everybody is trying to win the World Series. That's the championship. That's

what they call the championship of this sport. So, I'm going to give you a little bit of an

introduction about the setup of the game and a little bit what's going on.

So, what the playing field is called the baseball diamond. This is the diamond,

and this is the field. They play inside a stadium, but more commonly, people like to

refer to the place as the ballpark. And this is important to know because there's a lot of good

expressions that come with that. So, it's in a stadium. This is the field. This is the baseball

diamond, and on each corner of the diamond, there's something called a base. So, first base,

second base, third base, and home... It's home base, but what we have here is home plate. This

is the last base. This is the pitching mound. This is where the pitcher stands to throw the ball.

At home plate, the batter, the person hitting the ball with the baseball bat, so the batter,

tries to hit the ball. Here, we have the field, so we have fielders. We have left field, center

field, right field, and you have fielders. Right fielder, center fielder, left fielder,

and on the bases, you have first, second, and third baseman, and between second and third,

you also have a shortstop. So, basically, you have nine players per team playing. Oh, sorry.

At home plate, there is a catcher. So, the pitcher throws the ball, the catcher catches the ball

in case the batter doesn't hit it. So, those are the players. There's also an umpire. So,

in soccer or hockey, for example, there's a referee. In baseball, there is an umpire. There's

an umpire here, here, here, and here, so they make sure that everybody's following the rules,

that the game is being played properly. So, the point is to hit the ball or somehow get on the

base and go through all the bases. If a player somehow goes all the way around and comes back

to home plate, the team gets one point, and the point of the game is to get more points than your

opponent, than the other team. So, we had a pitcher, we have a hitter. Hitter and batter

is the same thing, the person standing here trying to hit the baseball. So, that's the setup

of the game, of the sport. Now, the game is played over nine innings. Like most sports,

they play within a time limit, like an hour or mostly most things an hour or 90 minutes in soccer,

for example. Baseball is played by innings, and it doesn't matter how long it takes. You need to get

27 outs. When all 27 players are out, then the game is over, and 27 for each side. So, some of

these games can be very, very long, and for a lot of people, it can be very, very boring, especially

on TV. But if you go to the ballpark to watch a baseball game, it's actually a lot of fun. You're

in the stadium, you're having a beer, there's all kinds of fans. If the weather is nice, even better.

It's fun, but it can be very, very long. So, as I mentioned, you have to get 27 outs. So, each

inning, there's a top of the inning and a bottom of the inning. Each team gets a chance to get on

the bases, and they're allowed three outs. Every time a player is out, he leaves the field. When

three players are out, the team leaves, and the other team gets a chance to try to hit and get on

base. Again, when all nine innings are finished, if the score is tied, like 1-1, 5-5, etc.,

then they will play extra innings, and they will continue until one team has more points.

So, some words you need to know. "Strike out". So, if the pitcher pitches the ball, if the player

swings and goes far enough with the bat and doesn't hit the ball, that is called a "strike".

You're allowed to have two strikes. The third strike, you're out. And this is a commonly used

word in everyday situations. Three strikes, you're out. Right? So, in school, a child misbehaves.

The teacher says, "Okay, first strike." Next week, the child misbehaves again, and the teacher says,

"Okay, you've had your first chance. This is your second chance. Second strike. Next time,

there's going to be a punishment." When the child misbehaves again, that's the third strike.

He's kicked out of the class, or he gets a punishment, or sent to the principal, or they

call the parents to come. It's a big deal. Right? So, this is a very commonly used word.

And the actual situation... So, this is "strike out" verb. "Strike out", a "strike out" is the

noun version. We just compound the two words. Now, there's also... Over the home plate,

there's a zone where the pitcher can throw the baseball for a strike. So, if the pitcher

throws a very easy-to-hit ball, but the player doesn't swing, it can still be a strike. So, again,

three strikes, you're out. If the pitcher throws four balls, but they're not easy to hit, and the

hitter does not swing four times, then this is called a "walk", and the player can go to first

base, and the next hitter can come on. Now, if the batter gets a hit, there are different types

of hits. A "hit" basically means that he hit the ball, and the ball fell somewhere inside the field

on the ground, and then the players have to pick up the ball, and throw it, and try to get it to

the base before the hitter can run there. And the distance between each base is 90 feet, in case

you're interested. There are different types of hits. A "single" means he hit the ball and was

able to run to first, but... And that's it. Or if he hit the ball very far, and he had more time,

and he was able to run to second, then that's called a "double". Sometimes, it's more rare,

but it does happen. If he hits it very far, and maybe the other team wasn't really ready, or

they weren't fast enough, he can run all the way to third base, that's called a "triple".

If he hits the ball over the fence, over the fence around the field, that... And he can... He can run

all the way around to home and get a point. That is called a "home run". And "home run" is also very

commonly used in everyday situation... Situations. If someone hits a "home run", it means he or she

did something very well, very successfully. So, for example, if I... If I go to school,

and I apply for something, for like a... Let's say apprenticeship, and I am accepted,

I hit a "home run". It means I did a very good job. Right? If someone hits it out of the ballpark,

means basically... It's not out of the stadium. It means out of the field, and that's a "home run",

that's another way to say "home run". We also use that expression. To hit it out of the ballpark

means to do something very, very well. So, we say, for example, a movie director...

Like, a young person was allowed to direct a movie, and this was his or her first movie. And

when we see the final production, the final movie, we say, "Wow, he really hit it out of

the ballpark." It means he really did an amazing job with... In directing this movie, just as an

example. Okay? So, very good expressions here. Now, some other actions that happen.

A hitter swings. So, when he moves the bat to try to hit the ball, it doesn't matter if he hits or

misses, the action is called a "swing". The catcher will catch the pitcher's pitch, or the

fielders, if the ball is up in the air, they can catch the ball. If they catch the ball in the air,

if the ball does not hit the ground, that is an "out". So, you can strike out, you can fly out.

Means you hit it and... Thing. If the ball reaches the base before the player,

that's an "out", and that's for any of the bases. So, there's quite a few ways to

be taken out, I guess you could say.

Slide. A player can slide to a base, like on his chest, to try to make it harder for the

baseman, the second baseman or the third baseman, to tag him. So, that's what they have to do,

they have to tag. So, if the ball hit the ground, in first base, it's easy, all they have to do is

get the ball to the base before the runner. But in second and third base, they have to touch the

runner, the hitter, with the ball. They have to tag the runner. If they tag him, he's out. If they

don't tag him, he's safe. I forgot to mention "safe". So, if you reach the base without being

tagged, you reached it safely and you can stay there and continue.

A foul ball. So, if the batter hits the ball, but the ball goes out of the field before third base

,

then that's called a foul ball and that's basically a strike, and he can hit again.

That's it. So, a few other hits. Now, there's all kinds of different hits in baseball.

A pop-up means the player hit the ball, it went in the air, and somebody caught it in the air.

A line drive means just a straight hit into the outside, outer field, and he will get on base.

A sacrifice fly. If a player is on third, this player can hit it up in the air,

and when the fielder catches it, the third place... The third base runner can run to home.

So, the batter sacrificed himself so this guy can come and score.

Anyways, that's getting already into more minor details. So, these are the basics that you need

to know about baseball. And remember, there are a lot of expressions. Once you learn more and more

about the game, you will start to notice that a lot of the expressions and terms that are used in

baseball are also used in everyday life, like hitting a home run, striking out, etc. Designated

hitter, all these things. Okay? So, there you go. That's just a little bit of an introduction,

a little taste of baseball. If you're interested in the sport, watch some games, do a little bit

of reading about the sport, start to understand how the game works. You can also watch games on TV

and listen to the commentators talking about what is happening and all the stories around the game.

If you're going to go live in the U.S., it's probably important that you know at least a

little bit about baseball because you will hear about it, especially during the playoffs. When

the World Series is close, people might be talking about it, especially if you're in the city that

the team is still playing for the World Series. Okay? I hope this was a little bit helpful.

If you have any questions, please go to www.engvid.com and you can ask me in the comments section.

There's also a quiz to make sure that you were able to follow and

can comprehend some of the points I made here today, so take the quiz as well. And if you like

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vocab, grammar, and other English tips. Until then, see you. Bye-bye.