Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal of baseball is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four markers called bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team (the offense) take turns hitting while the other team (the defense) tries to stop them from scoring runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways.

A single game is played by two teams, who, during the course of a game, alternate playing offense and defense. A "season" is played over the course of many months by a group of teams, called a league. Each team in the league plays all the other teams in the league a fixed number of times, though it is not always in round robin format. At the end of the season, the team with the most wins is the winner of the regular season.

The goal of a game is to score more points, which are called "runs" in the language of baseball, than the other team. Each team, usually composed of 9 or 10 players, attempts to score runs while on offense, by completing a tour of the bases, which form a square-shaped figure called a "diamond." A tour starts at home plate and proceeds counter-clockwise.

There are four basic tools of baseball: the bat, the ball, the mitt, and the field.

The bat is an offensive tool, either made of wood or aluminum depending on the game being played. It is a long, hard stick, about 2 inches (5 centimeters) in diameter, except at the handle, which is about 1-inch (2.5 centimeters) diameter.

The ball in baseball is about the size of a fist and white (though other colors can be used) with red lacing. Softball uses a white or yellow ball (usually) about the size of two fists with white lacing.

The glove or mitt is a defensive tool, made of leather, worn on the players hand to aide in catching the ball. It takes various shapes to meet the unique needs of the defensive position of the player.

The game is played on a field, whose dimensions vary depending on the age of the players. However, every field has a diamond, with bases at its corners, that the offensive players circumnavigate, as mentioned above. The part of the field closest to the bases is called the infield, and the part most distant from the bases is called the outfield.

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Simplified Baseball Rules.