Baseball Basics.

My coworker is going to a baseball game tonight. She asked me for the basics. This is what I sent to her.

If anybody knows Wallace Matthews's email address, maybe I'll also send it to him:

1) Each pitch is a ball or a strike.
2) Four balls is a walk.
3) Three strikes is an out.
4) A foul is a strike, but not if there are already two strikes. Then, it's a do-over.
5) A "hit" is reaching a base safely. An "out" is not reaching the base safely. Usually, an out is a strike out, a fly ball that is caught, or a ground ball that is fielded and thrown the first base before the batter reaches first base.
6) Three outs in an inning.
7) The bases clear after the inning is over. If you were on second base when the inning ended, you don't start at second base when the next inning starts.
8) Nine innings in a game.
9) When the runner touches home plate, it's a "run," not a "point."

Those are the basics.

Don't worry about the infield fly rule or why a runner on first base automatically runs when there are two outs and a 3-2 count. As long as you don't call a "run" a "point," you'll sound smart.