Baseball Basics

Baseball is a game between two teams of nine players The object is to win by scoring runs It's ninety feet between four bases that make a diamond square Sixty feet six inches from home plate to the pitcher There's mitts and hats and balls and bats and fancy uniforms At least nine innings should be played It's better if there's more An inning has three outs, each batter gets three strikes And if he gets four balls he gets to walk up to first base An umpire decides if a pitch is low or high, inside or out Or if the runner is out or safe The pitcher tries to throw it by, the batter tries to hit The fielders try to get him out and catch it with their mitt Pitcher, catcher, shortstop, first, second, third Left and right and center field That's the defense when the other team's at bat And the game begins and the pitcher starts to deal Every batter gets a chance to make it safely on And make it to the next base til they finally make it home There's seven ways to reach first base Base hit, base on balls, error, fielder's choice, hit by pitch Catcher's interference, dropped third strike, run A ball caught on the fly is an out, if it's foul or fair A ball over the fence is a home run And if a ground ball's thrown to first before the runner reaches there He's out and for a while he's done And if a runner wants to he can steal the next base But if a catcher throws the ball on the money, he is tagged out in disgrace A batter he can sacrifice, take one for the team And if he's really brave he can suicide squeeze But third base he was playing in and the play at home was close The runner slides head first, the catcher blocks the plate The helmets fly, my oh my, the umpire stands alone All eyes on home, the crowd explodes, the umpire calls him safe There's a bunch of other rules and the game within the game But it's best to just sit back and watch them play Cause baseball is the best of all the games, that's what I say So buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack I don't care if I never get back Let me root root root til I'm old and gray Let's turn that double play That ball will fly away Hey let's play two today.