Football and Baseball Sports - Essay Example

Football and Baseball Sports Introduction Sports includes all existent forms of competitive and at the same time physical activities which could be organized or casual, aimed at using, improving or maintaining one’s physical ability and to entertain participants. Various sports exist in the modern world ranging from those between two participants to those involving many players, even organized in teams. Whatever the sports, there would be governing rules and regulations that allow for winner’s consistent adjudication and ensure fair competition. Winning could be determined using various standards determined by the respective judges. Examples of these sports, which would be featured in this paper as it seeks to compare and contrast them from various aspects, include football and baseball. Football refers to sports involving ball kicking with the aim of scoring a goal. The most common form of football, association football, just referred to as football originated from Romans and Ancient Greeks. There would be opposing teams comprising of between 11 and 18 players with a maximum of 11 players being in the field at any playing moment. The points in the game would be earned by scoring goals by moving the football towards the opposite team’s side of the field with the aim of having the ball enter between the two goal posts. The opponents would be defending the goal line to make sure that the ball does not cross it with goalkeepers being the only players with the right of touching the ball in preventing a score. Several codes such as offside, free kick and being carded would be determined by the set rules and regulations to govern the game. The winner would be determined by the team with the highest number of goals. Various clubs have existed since the 18th Century involved in competitively playing football. The official international football governing body, FIFA has its headquarters in Zurich with six associated regional confederations. Baseball sports involves two teams each of nine players aiming as scoring runs through hitting a thrown ball using a bat a hitting four bases at the corners of the diamond, usually 90 foot in size. The batting team players hit in turns against the pitcher of the opponents, the fielding team which stops them from scoring runs. With the recording of three outs from the fielding team, the teams switch between fielding and batting. The winner would be determined by the number of runs such that the team with the most runs wins. Baseball and football have attracted huge fans in countries with these sports such as the US. Both football and baseball are ball games, despite the difference in the sizes and shapes of the balls. Players would throw the ball and run after it. To win in either of these sports, teamwork plays a crucial role in ensuring that the highest number of scores has been recorded. This means that teammates have to co-operate with each other, following the strategies given by their coaches for a win to be recorded. Just as there would be substitute players and goalkeepers in football, baseball would also have substitute catchers, infielders and outfielders. Both sports have rules and regulations that govern the way the players should conduct themselves and the determination of the winner. The players have the technical team that holds the decision of who to feature in the starting line-up, who to substitute and coaching on the strategies to use so as to win. Football teams and baseball teams have owners and even at times share owners between football and baseball clubs. For example, while having a shareholding in Arsenal Football Club, Stan Kroenke also owned the St. Louis Rams (NFL). Nonetheless, these two sports have distinctive features. First, in football, players would always attack the opposite team to prevent them from moving forward towards the goal. But in baseball, this would be a rare observation. While goals would be scored in football as the determinant of the winner, runs would be scored in baseball. Penalties would be awarded in football unlike in baseball where an error would be made. While baseball players put on a cap while playing on a diamond in a baseball park, football players do not have caps as part of their attire and play in a football stadium. There has been argument that football could be taken as more of physical game as opposed to baseball which has been considered as more mind-involving. Footballers could play in varied weather conditions including when it rains. On the other hand, a baseball game would not continue if it rains. In terms of the governing rules, the offense and defense sides change with the going out of every three players in a baseball game unlike in football where one would be changed to the offense side with the interception of the ball. It would be the offensive team that would put the ball to play in football unlike in baseball where the defensive team does this, with the defense being the only ones permitted to touch the baseball. In fact, touching the ball by an offensive player in baseball would cost such a player the play. Football teams would be run by a coach who wears different attire from the players. In baseball however, the manager runs the team and wears similar attire to the players. Whereas football would be timed for a specific period of time not below 90 minutes, a baseball game would not have any timing as there would not be a win without a team getting out the last batter with rallies not being time constrained. The football pitches measure between 100 and 110m in length and between 64 and 75m in width. On the other hand, baseball pitches vary not only in size but also in shape. Conclusion The sports of football and baseball have both been popular in the US and the world over and have some basic features that make them comparable. The basic of their shared features include the existence of opposing teams with the winner being determined by the number of scores, be it goals or runs. Nonetheless, these two forms of sports have intrinsic features that make them different from each other including the number of players in each team, the attire, playing timelines and the playing balls and other equipment. Therefore, in as much as the two sports could be comparable, there exist distinctions that also set them apart. Read More