Pesäpallo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pesäpallo (also referred to as "Finnish baseball") is a fast-moving ball sport that's quite often referred to as the national sport of Finland and has some presence in other countries, such as Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, and Northern Ontario in Canada (Both Australia and Northern Ontario have high Finnish and Scandinavian populations). Pesäpallo was developed and refined by Lauri "Tahko" Pihkala, who based it on baseball and some local games, around 1910-1920. The rules have remained the same since, aside from some fine-tuning in the 1990s by the Pesäpalloliitto, the governing pesäpallo federation in Finland. The basic structure of the game is identical to baseball's. Pesäpallo has 3 out-bases and a homebase. Players use a bat to hit the ball out to catchers, then move from base to base trying to arrive before the ball.
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[edit] Differences
The more significant differences to baseball are:
- The back line on the fly counts as a foul ball.
- A batter's box is removed and the home plate serves as a pitching plate; there is no catcher. Pitches are thrown straight upwards, and the batter tries to hit the ball when it drops down.
- The strike zone is rather different, and walking requires fewer invalid pitches.
- Catching a ball in flight is not an out, but forces all runners not on a base to return to home base.
- The batter is not required to run after hitting the ball on his first or second strike.
[edit] Players
The team playing the defensive half has 9 players in the field. The pitcher is positioned in the home base. A catcher plays in the infield on the side of the 2nd base. Each of the 3 bases has its baseman and an additional stopper playing close to the base. Two players covering the outfield are known as fielders.
The team playing the offensive half has 9 batters and 3 additional batters known as jokers. The term joker refers to a wild card rather than a jester. Whereas ordinary batters must bat in a pre-designated batting order, the joker batters are allowed to breach the batting order.
Fast runners are usually positioned in the front of the batting order, after which a player who spelializes in switching players (called runners) between bases. After that comes a player specializing in homing runners. The jokers are a batting joker (specializes in force play scoring (all bases have runners), a switching joker (specializes in switching runners between bases), and a runner joker (specializes in advancing in the field).
Both teams have have a captain who tries to beat the other team's captain in the draw of choice which determines which team gets to choose whether it will want to start in the offensive or the defensive half.
[edit] Rules
The game is overseen by an Umpire-in-chief who is assisted by a plate umpire, a 2nd base umpire, 3rd base umpire, and a Backline umpire.
The two teams play in pesäpallo court which has 3 field bases and a home base. During the offensive inning, the team is batting and during the defensive inning the team is catching, pitching and trying to Out the other team's runners. Each of the batters bats the ball and tries to advance in the field before the fielders get the ball to the next base.
A team is formed by up to two managers and up to 12 players. Nine players are allowed to be fielders in a single defensive inning. In a single offensive inning 9 players cn participate in batting and 3 work as jokers. During an offensive inning a team can use each of the 3 jokers once.
One inning has been played, after both teams have played a defensive and an offensive inning. In official pesäpallo games 2 periods of 4 innings are played. The team that has scored most runs during the period, wins the period. A period can also result in a draw. Change of innings takes place when the offensive team has gotten 3 outs or when two runs haven't been scored at the time when the player having started the offensive inning gets his/her turn at the bat and the team has used all its jokers.
If, after two periods, the game is at draw, a super inning is played. If the game still after the super inning is at draw, a scoring contest is used to resolve the game. In this a runner is positioned at the 3rd base and a batter tries to home the runner.
[edit] Required Equipment
[edit] Helmet
Each player is required to wear a helmet when playing in an offensive inning. If a player sets at bat without a helmet an out is marked for the team. The pitcher and the outfielders are not required to wear a helmet other fielder need to wear helmets.
The helmet must be approved by PPL (Pesäpalloliitto).
[edit] Glove
The glove is used to ease catching the ball when playing a defensive inning. The glove used in pesäpallo differs from the one used in baseball both in characterics and in appearance. The glove is made of leather although some manufacturers use different kinds of synthetic fibers on the back side. The inside of the glove is always made of thick leather and the main differences between gloves lie in the amount and quality of paddings, the thickness of the leather, the size of the glove and its shaping.
The ball is caught into the glove's a cup between the thumb and the index finger. Sometimes, however, the ball hits the palm and a properly designed glove can prevent injuries.
Other devices to catch the ball are not allowed.
[edit] Bat
Previously the bats used in pesäpallo were made of wood. These were farily brittle and did not last very long when used to hit forcefully a fairly heavy ball. Nowadays, wooden bats are only used in children's games and the bats used in adult's games are made of a mixture of glass fibres and carbon fibres. This mixture creates not only sufficient strength but also has proven to be durable. Top players use 2-5 bats during a season. The used bat has to be approved by Pesäpalloliitto. The only manufacturer still producing approved bats is Karhu. Previously also Exel produced composite bats.
The biggest differences between bats lie in the weight, center of gravity, flexibility and length. The maximum length of the bat is 100 centimeters. When using childrens' ball the maximum length of the bat is 90 centimeters.
The weight of the bat is considered to be its most important property. A typical bat used in Superpesis-league weights between 580 and 620 grams. The heaviest bats weight more than 650 grams but these are only used by strong players like batting jokers. Also lighter bats exists. For example junior players typically use bats that weight less than 400 grams. The usual diameter for the bats hitting point is 56 millimeters.
[edit] Accessories
[edit] Spikes
The use of spikes is not required to play pesäpallo. However, they do help the player substantially in rapid situations. Especially when playing on modern artificial grass fields. The artificial grass differs from e.g. what is used in football fields. The material sed in Pesäpallo is a mixture of sand and grass.
There are only a few manufacturers producing spikes designed for pesäpallo and many players use normal running spikes. Some shoes have also spikes at the heel but mostly spikes are positioned under the ball of the foot. Usually there are 7 spikes in a shoe and they are 3-15 millimeters long. When playing on artificial turf the maximum length of spikes is 6 millimeters.
[edit] Ball
Pesäpallo is only played with balls approved by Pesäpalloliitto. The diameter of the ball has to be 21.60-22.20 centimeters. The weight of the ball varies by series:
- Men's ball 160-165 grams
- Women's ball 135-140 grams
- Junior ball 95-100 grams
The ball is yellow and balls approved by Pesäpalloliitto have a stamp. The balls to a game are provided by the home team. In the beginning of 2005 season a rule governing the ball's resiliency properties. The values are:
for a men's ball
- a new ball's resiliency percentage (at 130 km/h) must be between 44.5.45.5 %
- a used ball's (70 times/130 km/h) resiliency percentage must be over 40 %.
for a women's ball
- a new ball's resiliency percentage (at 130 km/h) must be between 44.5-46 %
- a used ball's (100 times/130 km/h) resiliency percentage must be over 43 %
[edit] Competing
The Finnish championship series is known as Superpesis. Both men and women compete in their own series.
Internationally is played a World Cup. In 2006 the 5th World Cup was played in Munich, Germany. Partcipant countries included Australia, Finland, Germany and Sweden.
[edit] External links
- Pesäpalloliitto
- Superpesis
- Pesäpallo World Cup 2006
- Internet Introduction to Finnish Baseball/Pesäpallo
- German Pesäpallo League
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