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A Baseball Betting Guide for the Beginner, Part 1

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The World Series gets underway on October 24th so get to know the basics first...

The real basics

There are 30 teams who compete in Major League Baseball (MLB), the baseball league of North America. Teams aim to be crowned World Series Champions at the end of an arduous nine-month season. As is the case with all North American Sports, teams are divided into the National (NL) and American (AL) Leagues, and further sub-divided into East, West and Central divisions. The winners of the six divisions and two wild-card teams (the two teams with the best records out of those who have not won their division) compete in the post-season to decide the winners of the World Series.

The game

Each team has nine players and starts the game with a designated pitcher. Traditionally everyone in the team bats, however in the American League each team also has a tenth player, a designated hitter who bats instead of the pitcher - a peculiarity that has remained since the AL initiated the concept in 1973.

A game consists of nine innings for each team and the aim of the game is to outscore your opponents. To score, a batter must run around all the bases returning to home base without being 'out'. There are many ways of being out such as a strike out by the pitcher or being caught.

Detailed rules of the game can be found at: http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/official_rules/foreword.jsp

What is the World Series?

In the post-season the eight teams who qualify play series of five or seven games against each other. The reason for more than one game is due to the fact in baseball any team in the competition is capable of beating any other. It is rare to see a favourite below 1.3 for any one game. To keep luck to a minimum they have more matches.

Usually the best teams will qualify for the post-season, but once these playoffs begin anything can happen.

So what makes a good team?

Pitchers - Each team needs as a minimum of five good starting pitchers for the season. The starting pitcher doesn't usually throw every inning during a game, relieving pitchers are used. The collective name for the reserve pitchers is the 'bull-pen', the area where the reserve pitchers warm up before and during a game. A strong bull-pen is essential for a team to have a successful campaign.

Batting - Depending on the team's tactics and stadium the batting line-ups can vary. A team who wants to play 'small ball' will want a lot of fast players who are good at making contact with the ball. A team who plays in an 'easier' home run hitting park might want more sluggers.

Fielding - An often under-rated factor. The infielders (the fielders who play around the bases) generally need to be very good at diving, catching and throwing fast. Most of the action happens in the infield.

Coaching - Decision making in the big games is the most important. Knowing when to replace a tiring pitcher, managing batters and when to steal bases, for example.

Key Sites:
www.mlb.com - many stats on players and teams
www.nasn.com - good source of news and statistics from a European perspective

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