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Posts Tagged ‘Baseball’
Mon, June 30, 2008 12:52 pm By James Coolridge  Printer friendly version
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 Baseball is a game that runs in the blood of the young and old in the US. It is a sport that keeps millions of sports lovers across the country hooked up. The Baseball Leagues- major and little- are cherished by the fans. It is a team sport that requires highly passionate players who are committed to the game and their team. In this article, we provide you some of the essentials that make a great Baseball team, ‘coz great players make a great team and great teams give way to memorable matches! Read on.
• Team spirit: A Baseball team works as a single unit. The Baseball players should have team spirit and devotion to the game. The team must live and breathe Baseball.
• Support system: Baseball requires full support system, a system that is completely dedicated to the sport. The support system for a Baseball team includes the team owner, sponsors, the coach, and the school and college authorities. They must understand the psyche of the team. The support system should be very strong and impermeable.
• The coach: It is the coach who trains the Baseball players to give their best performance in the game. It is the coach who leads the team in every way. He/she is the backbone of the Baseball team. The coach should be tough, at the same time, adorable. He should understand the team and its players better than anybody else.
• Mental strength and balanced diet: Apart from physical strength, the members of a Baseball team should be very strong mentally. Mental strength training and a balanced nutrition should be focused. The health and nutritional aspects require special attention in order to build a strong foundation for the team. Routine exercises (including breathing exercises) and application of meditation techniques are other important aspects that help to create a great Baseball team.
Tags : Baseball, coach, mental strength, team, balanced nutrition
Fri, June 27, 2008 5:45 am By James Coolridge
 Dartball’s history dates back to many decades, with the first Dartball board being established by the Apex Company in 1923. Players have been competing in the Mon Yough Dartball League since 1928. A State Dartball Committee was also established by Wisconsin n 1951. Still, many people have never heard of the game of Dartball! If you are also one among them, read on.
Dartball is an indoor game played with darts and a board. The game makes use of a Dartball board which is a four by four foot square. The scoring areas of the game of Dartball are similar to the game of Baseball.
The board is placed two feet off the floor and is angled in such a way as to give the shape of a diamond. The four-base diamond shaped board consists of first, second, third, and home plate. Strike, out, ball, error, sacrifice, double play, triple play and hit pitcher are the additional areas marked in the board.
The home run is located in the centre of the board. A six inch foul line border surrounds the diamond shaped board. The measurement of the entire playing field including the foul territory is 42 inches. The configurations of the board and the rules of Dartball may vary from league to league.
The positioning of the players in the board is such that they are twenty to twenty-five feet away from the board. Each dart has a scoring area such as strike area and foul ball area.
The game is started just as the game of Baseball, with a player throwing the darts. The aim of the player throwing the darts is to make an out, get a hit or walk.
The Dartball player throwing the darts is called as the “batter”. Each dart thrown is the same as a pitch (baseball) in baseball. Darts may be thrown over handed, underhanded or both depending on league rules. Players throw darts towards the playing field from the pitcher’s line at a distance of 25 feet.
Run in Dartball is scored by a player when he advances around all of the bases- the first, second and third base and returns to the home plate safely. A player may score by hitting a home run or by any combination of plays, after he is “on base” (first, second, or third base) by subsequent batters getting either base hits or home runs that brings him home.
The other players of the team follow the player when he concludes his turn at the bat. The team has to make three outs. Then the other team has its turn up to bat.
The team scoring the most runs is the winner of the game.
Tags : Baseball, players, Dartball, darts, pitch, run
Mon, June 23, 2008 8:57 am By Dennis Hays
 If one asks you to tell which sport- football or baseball- is the number one in the United States, it may be difficult for you to give a fair reply since both the sports have wide popularity and passionate fan following. In this article, we have tried our best to give you an unbiased answer by analyzing the essential criteria that determine the popularity of a sport.
There are six main factors that help determine which sport is more beloved. They are the attendance (number of spectators in present in the match venue), ticket costs, revenue generated from television broadcast, salaries of the sportspersons, and venues of matches.
Attendance:
We can determine whether football or baseball is more popular in USA by looking at the number of spectators who present in the match venue. Let us take one instance. The average crowd at a baseball match venue in the year 2000 was 30,125 whereas around 66,077 spectators were present at a football game. This figure is based on a total yearly attendance divided by the total number of games that were played in the sport. These figures tell us that the number of people that went to football matches was twice as that of baseball games in during the year 2000.
Cost of tickets:
Ticket cost is an important criterion which can decide the popularity of a sport. Keeping this factor in mind, it can be said that baseball is more accessible and potentially more popular overall with the American families earning average to below-average income. During the year 2000, a ticket to baseball game cost $20.02, while football games cost around $54.14. We may thus say that live baseball is more affordable than live football.
Revenue generated from television broadcast:
This is another important criterion considered to analyze the popularity of a sport. We may say that football is the winner when it comes to the revenue that the sport generates from television broadcast.
According to a survey, the National Football League (NFL) has revenue of around 2.2 billion dollars generated from television broadcast in a year whereas the Major League Baseball earns about 340 million in a year.
Although football is on a few days per week while baseball is on nearly every night, the former gets more revenue from the advertisements on television. This clearly means that more people are watching football matches than the baseball games. We may thus say that if television revenue is compared, football is the number one sport.
The season of both the sports are opposite in many ways. When baseball season is long and drawn out with teams playing almost every night, football games appear only once a week. This adds to the buzz for a football game.
Tags : Baseball, Football, favorite, American, Sport
Fri, June 20, 2008 8:58 am By Dennis Hays
 A pitcher in Baseball can improve his pitching speed by applying direct force to the back of the ball. There are various other ways to improve the pitching speed. Here are some of them.
When you are firing the ball, pitch your elbow down and around toward first base. This will increase the pitching speed.
Another way to increase the pitching speed is by giving a solid push and by having stability in the lead leg. For this, you should have strength and stability in the lower half of your body. In addition to this, you should have a good leg drive for an effective throw.
There are different exercises to improve the lead leg stability and have a good solid push. Do these exercises regularly to have a good pitching speed, especially against good hitters. Squats, leg presses and calf raises are some of the beneficial techniques.
The third way to improve the pitching speed is by improving your torso rotation at the time of acceleration. The torso rotation can be improved by strengthening the torso. Major league baseball players adopt the medicine ball technique to strengthen their torso. Abdominal workout is also recommended for the pitchers to improve their pitching speed.
Tags : Baseball, Tips, rotator, cuff, skill, pitching
Fri, May 23, 2008 12:44 pm By James Coolridge
 Golf, softball, baseball, rugby, squash, karate and roller sports Baseball, softball, rugby, squash and karate are among the seven sports taken into consideration for two opening in the 2016 Olympics.
International Olympic Committee spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau on Friday said that IOC has sent letters to the world governing bodies of the seven sports notifying them that they are on the list for consideration. Moreau added that the IOC will send out questionnaires to the seven sports federations in December, with replies to be submitted by March 2009. The IOC program commission will prepare a report assessing the seven sports in April 2009.
Baseball and softball were not enlisted for the Olympic program for the 2012 London Games. They will get a chance for reinstatement at the IOC assembly in Copenhagen, Denmark to be held in October 2009. Golf, rugby, karate, roller sports and squash also didn’t get admission into the London Olympics in 2005.
The IOC executive board will hear presentations from the leaders of the seven sports at a meeting to be held in Lausanne, Switzerland, in 14 months and in a meeting to be conducted later in Copenhagen, Denmark, the full IOC will decide which two to admit.
Tags : Baseball, Golf, softball, karate
Tue, May 6, 2008 1:13 pm By James Coolridge
 A recent survey by a sports business journal has brought to our notice that Major League Baseball players are getting the lowest percentage of leaguewide revenue when compared with the other major U.S. team sports. Although his has been a thought that has been lingering in my mind for quite sometime, especially when I see my brother-in-law working overtime, even after playing for a MLB team.
2003 has listed the MLB players as earning 63 percent of the revenue, which has dropped to about 53 last year. That is weird, considering the popularity and the money this game produces in USA. Although players have never made a hue and cry about their payments, this has become quite evident recently. As the survey said, the highest percentage was pouring in the bags of the National Football League players.
As pointed out by Rob Manfred, the league’s executive vice president in charge of labor, the reason for the drop in payments was because of the luxury tax and revenue-sharing provisions.
Tags : Baseball, More Pay
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