baseball

[beys-bawl]

noun

1. a game of ball between two nine-player teams played usually for nine innings on a field that has as a focal point a diamond-shaped infield with a home plate and three other bases, 90 feet (27 meters) apart, forming a circuit that must be completed by a base runner in order to score, the central offensive action entailing hitting of a pitched ball with a wooden or metal bat and running of the bases, the winner being the team scoring the most runs.

2. the ball used in this game, being a sphere approximately 3 inches (7 centimeters) in diameter with a twine-covered center of cork covered by stitched horsehide.

3. Cards.,  a variety of five-card or seven-card stud poker in which nines and threes are wild and in which threes and fours dealt face up gain the player either penalties or privileges.

baseball

/ ˈbeɪsˌbɔːl /

noun

1. a team game with nine players on each side, played on a field with four bases connected to form a diamond. The object is to score runs by batting the ball and running round the bases

2. the hard rawhide-covered ball used in this game

Other Word Forms

• probaseball adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of baseball¹

First recorded in 1795–1805; base ¹ + ball ¹

Example Sentences

Bill James — the godfather of baseball analytics, who coined the phrase sabermetric in the late 1970s — did not revolutionize the way the sports industry looked at data so we could have more prop bets.

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Early in their careers, the constant yelling of buy and sell orders as well as colleagues’ conversations about baseball, summer trips to the Hamptons and Ivy League undergraduate experiences were all a culture clash.

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The son of a deputy sheriff, he played varsity baseball in high school.

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The greatest World Series by one pitcher in baseball history.

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And then there were train enthusiasts like an 11-year-old passenger, who was wearing a homemade California Zephyr shirt, a blue Amtrak baseball hat and a lanyard with collectible pins.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal