Justin Baltes and Dominick Kerman – Mustangs Ahead

(LAKEWOOD RANCH, FL)– The Major League baseball playoffs are set to begin, with the Tampa Bay Rays in the title hunt for the fourth straight year.  Baseball is a game that had its first game played in 1846. Because it has been played for so long, it is easy to see why it is so popular.

Many fans of the game of baseball love the deep roots of the game.

LRHS junior Jack Zolecki said, “The sport is so historic in the fact on how it has been played for so long. With it being played for so long there are many historic players, teams, and moments. If you look at the current state of the game of baseball, there are so many young and exciting players.

“These players are helping to rewrite the history book of the sport of baseball. With Aaron Judge hitting 60 homeruns it is helping reenergize the sport. Along with the young players, Albert Pujols is trying to get 700 homeruns before he retires at the end of the season,” he continued.

For example, the New York Yankees have won 27 World Series throughout their history. Originally founded in Baltimore, they moved to New York to become the New York Highlanders.

The press hated the name Highlanders. It was not until the New York Press coined the name Yankees that the team ended up getting renamed.

Back then baseball rules were drastically different from the modern rules. For example, the batter could request if they got a high or low pitch. Along with that rule there was also a rule that a fly ball and a foul ball could be caught off one bounce for an out.

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With all these rules you would think there would be a trained umpire to enforce all the rules. This was not true, however, as back in the start of the twentieth century the umpires were picked from the stands.

Many players respected these umpires and gave them the utmost respect because they were not paid to do the job.

Current members of the LRHS Varsity baseball team love the game of baseball.

Sophomore Hayden Antonelli said, “The game of baseball is unpredictable, on any given day any team could beat anyone. This is because unlike other sports, baseball cannot be won by one singular player, the whole team must work together.”