Baseball FAQs

The reason I started this blog was mainly because I couldn't find a general sports site geared towards females. There are tons of male-dominated sports sites with loads of too-intense information, but a place where girls could go to learn the basics did not exist. 

Throughout my blog life, I've been emailed some questions, and many of them I see over and over again. I figured if some girls were asking, many were probably wondering. 

Here are some FAQs when it comes to baseball. I'll move on to other sports eventually (football soon), but let's just focus on one at a time, alright?  

 Tell your boyfriends "you're welcome" from me in advance for answering these questions for them. You can also tell them I accept thank yous in the form of cash, clothing and/or jewelry. 

Baseball

photo via Mobile Commons

Q: What is the "wild-card" race and how can teams be a "game-and-a-half out"?

A: Wild-card race: This comes up close to the playoffs and happens in more sports than baseball (you've probably heard it with the NFL as well). Basically, "wild-card" teams are teams that did not finish 1st in their division (1st place teams automatically go to the playoffs), but still did well enough to make the playoffs. In the MLB, the wild-card teams are the teams from each league (2 leagues) who had the best record of a non-division winner. More here.

Game-and-a-half: This has to do with an amount of games played vs. amount of games won/lost. If two teams have won the same amount of games, but haven't played the same about of games, a team can be up (or down) by half-games.

Q: What is a "balk"?

A: Basically, a balk is when a pitcher does an illegal motion. For example, a pitcher cannot fake a pitch to the batter and instead throw the ball to a fielder to catch the runner off guard and potentially get the runner out. There are all kinds of rules, consequences and situations. If you're really intrigued, click here. 

Q: What are the K's the fans put up in the outfield?

A: K represents a strikeout. ("K" comes from the most dominant sound in "strike" and is meant to matchup with the inference to a "knock out".) When you see a K backwards that just means that it was a "called strikeout"—where the umpire called the last strike, as opposed to a strikeout where the batter swung at it.

Q: Why can't you be a Giants and a Padres fan?

A: This is a personal question I seriously get asked at least once a week. Many girls don't understand why people can't like two teams. The first reason is pride—many people have a love for one team and one team only, and that will never change. The second reason has to do with the division that both teams play in:

In the MLB there are two leagues—American League and National League. Within these leagues, there are three divisions per league: East, Central and West. With me still? 

In each division there are teams that make up this division (from 4-6 teams depending on your division/league). 

Well you see, the Padres and Giants are both part of the National League West. Only one team (unless one wins the wild-card spot, see above) can make it to the playoffs. So you see, if I rooted for the Giants I'd technically be rooting against the Padres, and I'll go to the grave cheering for SD. Therefore, go Padres!

I think that's enough sporty information to fill up on for one day. Now that you're totally sport smart, go impress a babe during the next game you watch.

 Keep sending the emails and I'll keep up with responses.

Football FAQ's coming soon...