Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team (the batting team) take turns hitting against the pitcher of the other team (the fielding team), which tries to stop them from scoring runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the batting team can stop at any of the bases and later advance via a teammate's hit or other means. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the fielding team records three outs. One turn at bat for each team constitutes an inning; nine innings make up a professional game. The team with the most runs at the end of the game wins. In North America, professional Major League Baseball (MLB) teams are divided into the National League (NL) and American League (AL). Each league has three divisions: East, West, and Central. Every year, the champion of Major League Baseball is determined by playoffs that culminate in the World Series.

Gameplay starts with a batter standing at home plate, holding a bat. The batter waits for the pitcher to throw a pitch (the ball) toward home plate, and attempts to hit the ball with the bat. The catcher catches pitches that the batter does not hit—as a result of either electing not to swing or failing to connect—and returns them to the pitcher. A batter who hits the ball into the field of play must drop the bat and begin running toward first base, at which point the player is referred to as a runner (or, until the play is over, a batter-runner). A batter-runner who reaches first base without being put out (see below) is said to be safe and is now on base.

Awaiting a pitch: batter, catcher, and umpire

Как уже было упомянуто в английском тексте, главный турнир носит название World Series. Как пошутил один известный английский комик: «Nobody in the world plays the bloody game, and they call it World Series!» Здесь мы имеем дело с американским менталитетом, апогеем и ярким представителем которого является Texaс и техасцы, у которых все, что ни возьми, самое красивое, самое большое, самое дорогое и т.д.

Бейсбол подарил английскому языку выражения, очень часто используемые в фильмах, СМИ, каждодневном общении: home run, three strikes and you are out, touch base, pitcher, striker и т.д.

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Американцы в отместку англичанам (которых они называют Brits с разными нелестными эпитетами) везде заявляют, что футбол, который популяризировали англичане (кстати, теперь многие народы пытаются приписать именно себе изобретение футбола, баскетбола и т.д.) – это скучнейшая игра, и смотреть ее невозможно. Вот американсакий футбол – это да! Кстати, в России тоже иногда нелестно отзываются о футболе: 22 дурака гоняют один мяч, или: было у мамы три сына – двое умных, а один – футболист, и т.д.

Дата добавления: 2015-07-19