A ball game is a game A game is a structured activity, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more concerned with the expression of ideas. However, the distinction is not clear-cut, and many games are also considered to be work or art played with a ball A ball is a round, usually spherical but sometimes ovoid, object with various uses. It is used in ball games, where the play of the game follows the state of the ball as it is hit, kicked or thrown by players. Balls can also be used for simpler activities, such as catch, marbles and juggling. Balls made from hard-wearing materials are used in. Someone who plays a ball game is known as a ballplayer.
There are many popular games or sports involving some type of ball or similar object. These games can be grouped by the general objective of the game, sometimes indicating a common origin either of a game itself or of its basic idea:
- Bat-and-ball Bat-and-ball games are field games played by two teams. The teams alternate between "batting" and "fielding" roles, sometimes called "in at bat" and "out in the field", or simply in and out. Only the batting team may score, so the fielding team is defending, but they have equal chances in both roles. The games, such as cricket and baseball.
- Racquet and ball games, such as tennis, squash and racquetball.
- Hand and ball-striking games, such as various handball codes, rebound handball and 4 square.
- Two-goal games, such as basketball and all forms of football, hockey or lacrosse.
- Volleying games, such as volleyball and beach volleyball.
- "Target" games, such as bowling and lotball.
- The original "Ball Game", whose objective is to keep the ball constantly moving but not allowing it to bounce twice upon the ground without being struck between bounces.
Popular ball games from around the world include:
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- Baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The goal is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the other team (the fielding team), which tries (in North America, a game of baseball is often referred to as a "ballgame")
- Basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules. Basketball is one of the most popular and widely viewed sports in the world
- Basque pilota Pilota Valenciana or Valencian pilota is a traditional handball sport played in the Valencian Community. Its origins are not known, but seems to be related to the French Jeu de paume
- Jai alai Jai alai is a variety of Basque Pelota. The term is loosely often also applied to the fronton (the open-walled playing area) where the sport is played. It's called "Cesta punta" (the words for basket and tip) in Spanish
- Bocce Bocce is a ball sport belonging to the boules sport family, closely related to bowls and pétanque with a common ancestry from ancient games played in the Roman Empire. Developed into its present form in Italy (where it is called Bocce, the plural of the Italian word boccia which means "bowl"), it is played around Europe and also in
- Boules Two of the most played boule games are pétanque and boule lyonnaise. The aim of the game is to get large, heavy balls as close to the small 'jack'. It is very popular especially in France, but also Italy, where it may often be seen played in any open space in villages and towns. It is also similar to 'bocce' and 'bowls'
- Bowling Bowling is a sport in which players attempt to score points by rolling a bowling ball along a flat surface, usually a wooden or synthetic surface, either into pins or to get close to a target ball. There are many forms of bowling, with one of the most recent being ten-pin bowling. Primitive forms of bowling may have existed in ancient times as
- Bowls Bowls is a sport in which the objective is to roll slightly asymmetric balls, called bowls, so that they stop close to a smaller—normally white—bowl called the "jack" or "kitty". Bowls, either flat- or crown-green, is usually played outdoors, on grass and synthetic surfaces. Flat-green bowls can also be played indoors on
- Canoe polo Canoe polo is a competitive ball sport played on water, in a defined "field", between two teams of 5 players, each in a kayak. The object of the game is to get the ball into the opponent's goal (i.e. to score goals), the team scoring the most goals in a set time being the winner
- Carpetball Carpetball is a recreational game invented by David W.E. Holman that involves attempting to knock all of your opponent's balls into their end of the carpetball table before they knock all of your balls into your end. It is often found at camps and in youth facilities. Carpetball is suitable for play by a wide range of ages, and skill is not tied
- Cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball team sport. Many variations exist, with its most popular form played on an oval-shaped outdoor arena known as a cricket field at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch that is the focus of the game. A game (or match) is contested between two teams of eleven players each. One team bats, and will try to (see cricket ball A cricket ball is a hard, solid ball used to play cricket. Constructed of cork and leather, a cricket ball is heavily regulated by cricket law at first class level. The manipulation of a cricket ball, through employment of its various physical properties, is the staple component of bowling and dismissing batsmen – movement in the air, and off)
- Croquet Croquet is a lawn game, played both as a recreational pastime and as a competitive sport. It involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through hoops embedded into the grass playing court
- Cue sports Cue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber cushions (also knowns as billiards, including carom billiards Carom billiards, sometimes called carambole billiards or simply carambole , is the overarching title of a family of billiards games generally played on cloth-covered, 5 by 10 feet (approximately 1.5 × 3 m) pocketless tables, which often feature heated slate beds. In its simplest form, the object of the game is to score points or "counts", English billiards English billiards, called simply billiards in many former British colonies and in Great Britain where it originated, is a hybrid form of carom and pocket billiards played on a billiard table. Billiards is less well known as the "English game", the "all-in game" and the "common game", pocket billiards Pool, also known as pocket billiards, is the general term for a family of cue sports played on a pool table with six receptacles called pockets along the rails, into which balls are deposited as the main goal of play or pool, and snooker Snooker is a cue sport that is played on a large green baize-covered table with pockets in each of the four corners and in the middle of each of the long side cushions. A regular table is 12 × 6 ft (3.7 × 1.8 m). It is played using a cue and snooker balls: one white cue ball, 15 red balls worth one point each, and six balls of different colours:, among many other variations)
- Dodgeball Dodgeball means any game in which players try to hit other players with balls and avoid being hit. There are many such games; see List of dodgeball variations. This article is about a well-known form of team sport with modified rules that is often played in physical education classes and has been featured in a movie, Dodgeball: A True Underdog
- Downball Australian handball is similar to squash played without a racquet. Once served, the ball contacts a front wall without having bounced on the ground. It must then be returned similarly by the opponent to the front wall, before the ball bounces on the ground twice
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- Floorball Floorball, a type of floor hockey, is an indoor team sport which was developed in the 1970s. Floorball is most popular in areas where the sport has developed the longest, such as the Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland.[citation needed] The game is played indoors on a gym floor, making it a year-round sport at the amateur and
- Footbag A footbag is a small, round bag, sometimes referred to generically as a hacky-sack. . Although the game has existed for many years (policemen are seen playing it in the 1955 movie To Catch a Thief, for example), the current western incarnation of the sport was invented in 1972 by two men from Oregon City, Oregon, Mike Marshall and John Stalberger
- Football The game of football is any of several similar team sports, of similar origins which involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot in an attempt to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer". Unqualified, the word football:
- Association football Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of eleven players using a spherical ball. It is widely considered to be the most popular sport in the world (soccer)
- Gridiron football Gridiron football is an umbrella term used in some English-speaking countries outside North America to refer to several similar codes of football played primarily in the United States and Canada. The term refers to the sport's characteristic field of play, which is marked with a series of parallel lines resembling a gridiron. The term gridiron in
- American football American football, known in the United States simply as football and often as gridiron outside the United States, is a competitive team sport. The objective of the game is to score points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. The ball can be advanced by carrying it or by throwing it to a teammate (a passing play). Points can be
- Canadian football Canadian football is a form of gridiron football played almost exclusively in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play 110 yards long and 65 yards (59 m) wide attempting to advance a pointed prolate spheroid ball into the opposing team's scoring area (end zone). In Canada, the term football
- International rules football International rules football is a team sport consisting of a hybrid of football codes, which was developed to facilitate international representative matches between Australian rules football players and Gaelic football players
- Australian rules football Australian rules football, also officially known as Australian football, is a variant of football played outdoors between two teams of 18 players, plus four interchange players, on large oval-shaped grass fields , with a ball in the shape of a prolate spheroid. The game is commonly referred to as football, Aussie rules or (colloquially) as footy
- Gaelic football Gaelic football , commonly referred to as "Football", "Gaelic", or "Gah" is a form of football played mainly in Ireland. It is, together with hurling, one of the two most popular spectator sports in Ireland
- Rugby football Rugby football is either of two current sports, either rugby league or rugby union, or any of a number of sports through history descended from a common form of football developed in different areas of the United Kingdom
- Rugby league Rugby league football, usually called simply rugby league, is a full-contact form of football, played with a prolate spheroid ball by two teams of thirteen players on a rectangular grass field. One of the two codes of rugby football, following rugby league's split from the strictly amateur Rugby Football Union in 1895, altered rules were adopted
- Rugby union Rugby union, or simply Rugby, is a full contact team sport, a form of football which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. It is played with an oval-shaped ball, outdoors on a level field, usually with a grass surface, up to 100 metres long and 70 metres (2
- Football tennis Footballtennis is a hybrid sport originating in Central Europe; in English it is called Football Tennis. In German it is called Fußballtennis, in French it is Tennis-Ballon, and in Hungarian it is called lábtenisz
- Four square Four square, also known as squareball, handball or boxball,[citation needed] is a ball game played among four individuals on a square court divided into quadrants. With such little required equipment, almost no setup, and short rounds of play that can be ended at any time, it is a popular playground game
- Golf Golf is a precision club-and-ball sport, in which competing players , using many types of clubs, attempt to hit balls into each hole on a golf course while employing the fewest number of strokes. Golf is one of the few ball games that does not require a standardized playing area. Instead, the game is played on golf "courses", each of (see golf ball Under the Rules of Golf, a golf ball weighs no more than 1.620 oz , has a diameter not less than 1.680 in (42.67 mm), and performs within specified velocity, distance, and symmetry limits. Like golf clubs, golf balls are subject to testing and approval by the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews and the United States Golf Association, and)
- Grifball
- Half-rubber Half-rubber is a bat-and-ball game similar to stick ball or baseball. The game was developed in the American South at some time around the beginning of the 20th Century. The cities of Savannah, GA and Charleston, SC both claim to be the birthplace of the game. Records of the game being played date back to the mid-1910's. Half-Rubber has been
- Handball:
- American handball It is a common belief that American handball has been played in the United States since the 1880s. A version of hand ball was played by the Northern and Central Americans from 1500 B.C. most famously by the Aztecs as the Mesoamerican ballgame. The modern sport of American Handball is similar in context and rules to both Irish and Scottish versions
- Australian handball Australian handball is similar to squash played without a racquet. Once served, the ball contacts a front wall without having bounced on the ground. It must then be returned similarly by the opponent to the front wall, before the ball bounces on the ground twice
- Gaelic Handball Gaelic handball is a sport similar to Basque pelota, racquetball and squash and it is one of the four Gaelic games organised by the Gaelic Athletic Association. The game may be played with two, three, or four players. The important difference between it and racquetball and squash is that the players hit the ball with the hand instead of a racquet
- Hockey:
- Field hockey Field hockey is a team sport in which a team of players attempt to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking the ball with hockey sticks into the opposing team's goal. Its official name is simply hockey, and this is the common name for it in many countries. However, the name field hockey is used in countries where the word hockey is usually
- Floorball Floorball, a type of floor hockey, is an indoor team sport which was developed in the 1970s. Floorball is most popular in areas where the sport has developed the longest, such as the Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, Norway and Switzerland.[citation needed] The game is played indoors on a gym floor, making it a year-round sport at the amateur and
- Rink hockey Roller Hockey is a team sport that enjoys significant popularity in a number of Latin countries. Depending on territories, it is also known as Hóquei em Patins, International Style Ball hockey, Rink Hockey or Hardball Hockey. Roller Hockey was a demonstration rollersport in the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona. There have been many world
- Hooverball Hooverball is a medicine ball game invented by President Herbert Hoover's personal physician to help keep then-President Hoover fit. The Hoover Presidential Library Association and the city of West Branch, Iowa, co-host a national championship each year
- Hurling Hurling is an outdoor team sport of ancient Gaelic origin, administered by the Gaelic Athletic Association, and played with sticks called hurleys and a ball called a sliotar. The game, played primarily in Ireland, has prehistoric origins and is thought to be the world's fastest field team sport in terms of game play. One of Ireland's native Gaelic
- Juggling Juggling is a skill involving moving objects for entertainment or sport. The most recognizable form of juggling is toss juggling, in which the juggler throws objects up to catch and toss up again. Jugglers often refer to the objects they juggle as props. The most common props are balls or beanbags, rings, clubs, and special bounce balls. Some
- Kick-to-kick (includes end-to-end footy)
- Korfball
L - P
- Lacrosse and Women's Lacrosse
- Lotball
- The Mesoamerican ballgame
- Netball
- Newcomb ball
- PaddleBall
- Paintball
- Pelota mixteca
- Pétanque
- Podex
- Polo
- Push ball
Q - Z
- Quidditch (fictional game from Harry Potter)
- Racquetball
- Rapid ball
- Ringo
- Rock-It-Ball
- Rockerball
- Rounders
- Sepak takraw
- Shinty
- Skee ball
- Softball
- Squash
- Stickball
- Stickball (Native American)
- Streetball
- Table football (foosball)
- Tchoukball
- Team handball
- Tee ball
- Tetherball
- Tennis
- Tennis polo/toccer
- Ulama
- Valencian pilota
- Volleyball
- Water basketball
- Water polo
- Wiffleball
- Wireball
Categories: Ball games
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realgmbaseball.com
Tue, 15 Jun 2010 12:31:19 GMT+00:00
After Ball To Head RealGM.com Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols singled three times and walked twice on Monday night despite taking a pitch to the left ear flap in the fifth inning. ... Mariners' post- game musings Seattle Times (blog) Mariners vs. Cardinals, game thread, June 15 Seattle Times (blog) Homers give Cards win in Suppan's return MLB.com St. Louis Globe-Democrat
stickandballguy.com
SBG
Sat, 14 Aug 2010 22:00:24 GM
Duensing isn't a big strikeout pitcher (5.08 K/9), but he's getting guys to pound the . ball. into the ground (52.4%) and he's a Twin, so walks are low enough that he's got an average K:BB ratio. Add it up and you get a 4.20 xFIP. ...
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