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Baseball likely is the simplest sport to understand, in terms of learning the positions of the players and watching the game. In other sports, such as hockey and basketball, the players move constantly, making it difficult for the casual observer to understand what role each person plays. In football, the players are huddled closely together, and you cannot always make out what is going on. Baseball, though, allows you the opportunity for a couple of quick lessons before you are game-ready.

There are 10 players always on the baseball field. Nine of those players are on the defensive side of the ball. The easiest positions to understand are the pitcher and catcher. Baseball is one of the only sports where the team that is playing defense tries to get the ball. By definition, the offensive team is trying to score. In baseball, the pitcher is always on defense. He throws the ball over home plate where the catcher stops it.

The batter, who is playing offense, is at home plate. The batter may be the only offensive player on the field. The others, if there are any, would be on the other bases.

Each base has a baseman. The job of these basemen is to get a runner out at his respective base. The third baseman, then, always will "cover his base," meaning while he may attempt to catch a fly ball or field a grounder, his first job is to stay on third base to tag out a runner. The pitcher, catcher, and basemen make up five of the nine players.

The other in-field player is the shortstop. The in-field is the area between the bases and only a few feet behind. On the modern baseball field, it is easy to recognize the in-field because it is dirt while the outfield is grass. The shortstop covers the ground between second and third bases. He may cover one or the other base if the baseman cannot. The shortstop works harder than any other in-fielder in terms of ground to cover.

The final three players are the left, center, and right fielders. If you are standing at home plate, the left and right are determined as you are looking out at the field, so the left fielder is roughly behind third base and the right fielder behind first base. Most fly balls that reach the outfield land in left field. Each of these players has significant ground to cover as he must be prepared to run to catch balls in one third of the outfield area as well as to cover for other outfielders and to be the cut-off man. The cut-off man catches a very long throw from the outfield that will not make it all the way to the in-field on its own.

It is simple to understand the positions that make up a baseball team because you will find that the players each cover a certain area of the field and that it all. They do not move back and forth around each other. It makes the game much easier to learn because you can tell the players apart easily.

by Julia Mercer