Pesäpallo - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Pesäpallo is a fast-moving ball

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...

sport

Sport

A Sport is all forms of physical activity which, through casual or organised participation, aim to use, maintain or improve physical fitness and provide entertainment to participants. Sport may be competitive, where a winner or winners can be identified by objective means, and may require a degree...

that is quite often referred to as the national sport of Finland

Finland

Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside...

and has some presence in other countries, such as Germany

Germany

Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

, Sweden

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

, Switzerland

Switzerland

Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, and Northern Ontario

Northern Ontario

Northern Ontario is a region of the Canadian province of Ontario which lies north of Lake Huron , the French River and Lake Nipissing. The region has a land area of 802,000 km2 and constitutes 87% of the land area of Ontario, although it contains only about 6% of the population...

in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

(Both Canada and Australia have high Finnish and Scandinavia

Scandinavia

Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...

n populations). The game is similar to brännboll

Brännboll

Brännboll is a game similar to rounders, baseball, lapta and pesäpallo played on amateur level throughout Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Germany, mostly on fields and in public parks, but it is also part of the PE curriculum in some areas...

, rounders

Rounders

Rounders is a game played between two teams of either gender. The game originated in England where it was played in Tudor times. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a round wooden, plastic or metal bat. The players score by...

, baseball

Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim 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 diamond...

and lapta

Lapta (game)

Lapta is a Russian bat and ball game first known to be played in the 14th century. Mentions of lapta have been found in medieval manuscripts, and balls and bats were found in the 14th-century layers during excavations in Novgorod...

.

Pesäpallo is a combination of traditional ball-batting team games and north American baseball. The game was first developed by Lauri "Tahko" Pihkala

Lauri Pihkala

Lauri Pihkala was the inventor of pesäpallo, the Finnish variant of baseball. He also competed in the 1908 Summer Olympics and in the 1912 Summer Olympics....

in the 1920s. Pesäpallo has changed with the times and grown in popularity. Its success as spectator sport is based on the unique combination of skills, smarts, athleticism and teamwork required in the modern game. The game is nowadays also known by the informal name of pesis. Rooted deeply in the history of Finland as a nation and in the everyday life in the country regions, pesäpallo is also enjoyed by all Finns in schools, parks and fields as a hobby, which can be played by everybody for great fun.

The rules of pesäpallo are quite complicated, but the idea of the game is simple. One team tries to score by hitting the ball and running through the bases, the other team tries to defend by catching the ball and putting the runners out. The key to the game and the most important difference between pesäpallo and baseball is the vertical pitching. Hitting the ball, as well as controlling the power and direction of the hit, is much easier. This gives the offensive game much more variety, speed and tactical dimensions than in baseball. The fielding team is forced to counter the batter’s choices with defensive schemes and anticipation, and the game becomes a mental challenge.

The manager has an important role in pesäpallo. The offensive and defensive strategies include several prepared plays for every situation. The manager leads his team’s offense by giving signals to the players with a multicolored fan. The defensive team play is directed by the manager’s orders and hand signals by the fielders. Thanks to the continuous communication, decision making and seamless co-operation on the field pesis is a demanding and interesting team sport, suitable for the modern information era.

To an experienced fan the elite league games of Superpesis offer endless variations and innovations of the tactical battle, while a newcomer to the game can be fascinated by the rapidly developing play action and the physical skills, speed and finesse of the players.

In 2009, there were over 15,000 official players in Finland.

Pesäpallo was a demonstration sport

Demonstration sport

A demonstration sport is a sport which is played to promote itself, most commonly during the Olympic Games, but also at other sporting events.Demonstration sports were officially introduced in 1912 Summer Olympics, when Sweden decided to include glima, traditional Icelandic wrestling, in the...

at the 1952 Summer Olympics

1952 Summer Olympics

The 1952 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XV Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Helsinki, Finland in 1952. Helsinki had been earlier given the 1940 Summer Olympics, which were cancelled due to World War II...

, held in Helsinki

Helsinki

Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...

, Finland

Finland

Rules

A modern competition game is played in two periods of four innings each. A period is won by the team which scores more runs in its offensive half-innings. If each of the teams wins one period, the game will be decided by a super inning (extra period), which consists of one inning and, if necessary to break the tie, of a special scoring contest.

During an inning both teams take turns playing offense (batting) and defense (fielding).

The defensive team has nine players on the field. The offensive team can use three jokers (designated hitters) during one half-inning in addition to the nine players in the regular batting order. The offensive team can continue batting until three players have been put out or one round of the batting order has been completed without at least two runs scored.

The batter and the pitcher face each other in the home base, on opposite sides of the circular plate. The pitch is delivered by throwing the ball directly upwards above the plate, to a height of at least 1 meter over the head of the pitcher.

The batter has three strikes available on his turn at bat. A fair hit does not force him to advance; he can use all three strikes at bat before he becomes a runner. A pitch counts as a strike, if the batter takes a swing at the ball or if the umpire rules the pitch legal. If the pitcher delivers a bad pitch (ball), the batter is granted a walk to the first base only if the field is empty. If there are runners on the field, the point runner is granted a walk to the next base for the second bad pitch. A pitch is ruled bad, if the ball does not fall on the plate, if the pitch is too low or if the pitcher commits a violation.

A hit is foul if the ball first touches the field outside of the boundaries. The batter or the runners cannot advance on a foul hit. If the fielders get control of the ball before it touches the field, the hit is a catch, and all runners who tried to advance on that play are caught. Players who have been caught are removed from the field, but they do not count as outs.

After the batter becomes a runner, he must try to advance safely to the first base. The runner reaches safety on a base by touching the base area before the ball is thrown to a fielder in the base. If the ball gets to the base first, the runner is put out and removed from the field. The batter is also put out if his third strike is foul hit. A runner on a base is forced to advance if the next runner reaches safety on the same base.

The offensive team scores a run when a runner returns safely to the home base after advancing safely through all three field bases. If a batter advances to the third base on his own fair hit, he scores a home run. He can then stay on the third base and try to score again as a regular runner by reaching the home base on a later play.

Differences from baseball

The most significant differences from baseball are:

The first bounce of the ball is decisive: It must bounce within the play area, and may then roll over a line and still be in play. The back line on the fly counts as a foul ball
Foul ball
In baseball, a foul ball is a batted ball that:* Settles on foul territory between home and first base or between home and third base, or* Bounds past first or third base on or over foul territory, or...

. The foul lines are also on the sides and the front of the field. So if a player aims high and hits a very hard hit that would be a certain home run in baseball, it is counted as a strike/foul in pesäpallo. This increases the tactical approach.
Catching a ball in flight
In flight
In baseball, the rules state that a batted ball is considered in flight when it has not yet touched any object other than a fielder or his equipment....

is not an out
Out (baseball)
In baseball, an out occurs when the defensive, or fielding, team effects any of a number of different events, and the umpire rules a batter or baserunner out. When a player is called out, he is said to be retired...

, but forces all runners advancing at the moment of the catch to return to home base (this is called a "haava", literally "a wound" or simply "koppi", "a catch"). They still have to reach the next base safely, as normal.
A batter's box is removed and the home plate serves as a pitching plate, which is round with a diameter of 0.6 metres (23.6 in). All other batting team players stand in a semicircle near the batter.
Players generally have little difficulty hitting the ball, so the main target is not just hitting the ball but selecting a suitable type of hit and directing it correctly. There are many different types of hits used, here are a few examples:
- Snap (short) hit: Normally used for advancing fast runners between bases, aimed to avoid defensive players. Usually hit in such way that the ball takes a hard spin.
- Fly hit: An intentional high hit to be caught, often used to give way for faster runners.
- High drive: Aimed to drop to the field between midfield and outfield, with a top spin. Excellent for scoring.
- Bouncer: Used for advancing fast runners, hit downwards very hard to be bounced right next to the front arc. Aimed towards the base runner is leaving, or to the center. Technically very hard to perform, used only by advanced players.
A home run is scored when the batter reaches third base before the ball (the ball is in play even if it has bounced to the river near the field). After a home run the runner will stay at third base and continue as a normal runner.
Walking
Base on balls
A base on balls is credited to a batter and against a pitcher in baseball statistics when a batter receives four pitches that the umpire calls balls. It is better known as a walk. The base on balls is defined in Section 2.00 of baseball's Official Rules, and further detail is given in 6.08...

requires fewer invalid pitches. When the field is empty of runners, one invalid pitch grants a walk, otherwise two. After two invalid pitches every single one after that grants another walk. A walk advances the point runner; if there is a runner at third base, that player shall score.
A fair hit does not force the batter to advance; he can use all three strikes at bat before he becomes a runner. A pitch counts as a strike, if the batter takes a swing at the ball or if the umpire rules the pitch legal.
Force outs are always outs: if the runner is off the base and the ball is in the control of a defensive player at the next base, the runner is out.
The bases are not laid in a diamond shape; the players have to 'zig zag' the court (see chart).
When entering a base or the home base, the runner only has to cross the line of the base; there are no actual cushion bases like in baseball, only lines in the field showing each base's boundaries (a much larger area compared to the bases used in baseball). Similarly, the pitcher or the fielders in the bases don't have any plates to touch to make an out; having only a foot in the base is enough.
The attacking team uses a colour coded fan to signal the runners when to move. The fan is multicoloured, held by the manager of the team. Colour sequence is decided prior to the game.

Players

The team playing the defensive half has nine players in the field. The pitcher is positioned in the home base. A catcher plays in the infield on the side of the second base. Each of the three bases has its baseman and an additional two shortstops playing close to the second and third bases. Two outfielders cover the outfield. Players can switch their places and position themselves to the field wherever they want. Different positioning is used in different situations, when the defensive team can expect a certain type of hit. This is usually determined by the location of the offensive team's point runner. Special tactics could even be made against a certain batter.

The team playing the offensive half has nine batters and three additional batters known as jokers (The term "joker" refers to a wild card rather than a jester). Whereas ordinary batters must bat in a pre-designated batting order, the joker batters are allowed to breach the batting order.

Today, players usually have a specialized role in the batting order depending on their abilities. Fast runners are usually positioned first in the batting order, after which players who specialize in advancing runners between bases. Next comes a player specializing in scoring runners home. Players from 6 to 9 often form another attacking combination. The jokers are usually a selection of either batting jokers (good hitters specializing in scoring) or runner jokers (fast runners specializing in advancing in the field).

Both teams have a pelinjohtaja, lit. a game leader or more simply, a manager. The captain of the team – one of the players – tries to beat the other team's captain in the hutunkeitto, draw of choice which determines which team gets to choose whether it will want to start in the offensive or the defensive half. The manager is also akin to a coach and he does not take part in the actual game.

Helmet

Each player is required to wear a helmet when playing in an offensive inning. If a player sets at bat without a helmet an out can be marked for the team. The pitcher and the outfielders are not required to wear a helmet, but other fielders need to wear helmets. The helmet must be approved by PPL (Pesäpalloliitto)(Finnish Baseball Union).

Glove

The glove is used to ease catching the ball when playing a defensive inning. The glove used in pesäpallo differs from the one used in baseball both in characteristics and in appearance. The glove is made of leather although some manufacturers use different kinds of synthetic fibers on the back side. The inside of the glove is always made of thick leather and the main differences between gloves lie in the amount and quality of padding, the thickness of the leather, the size of the glove and its shaping.

The ball is caught into the glove's cup between the thumb and the index finger. Sometimes, however, the ball hits the palm and a properly designed glove can prevent injuries.

Other devices to catch the ball are not allowed.

Bat

The bat is a round, tapered cylinder. Previously the bats used in pesäpallo were made of wood. These were fairly brittle and did not last very long when used to hit such a heavy ball. Now, wooden bats are only used in children's games and the bats used in adult's games are made of a mixture of glass fiber and carbon fiber. Top players use 2–5 bats during a season. The bat has to be approved by Pesäpalloliitto. The only manufacturer still producing approved bats is Karhu. Previously, Exel

Exel

DHL Supply Chain is a division of Deutsche Post providing contract logistics and value-added services.- History :On 14 December 2005 Deutsche Post announced the completion of the acquisition of Exel plc, becoming the global No. 1 in air freight, ocean freight and contract logistics...

also produced composite bats.

The biggest differences between bats lie in the weight, center of gravity, flexibility and length. The maximum length of the bat is 100 centimeters. When using a children's ball the maximum length of the bat is 90 centimeters.

The weight of the bat is considered to be its most important property. A typical bat used in Superpesis-league weighs between 580 and 620 grams. The heaviest bats weigh more than 650 grams but these are only used by strong players like batting jokers. Also lighter bats exist. For example junior players typically use bats that weigh less than 400 grams. The usual diameter for the bat's hitting point is 56 millimeters.

Spikes

The use of spikes - like in running - is not required to play pesäpallo. However, they do help the player substantially in rapid situations. Especially when playing on modern artificial grass

Artificial turf

Artificial turf is a surface manufactured from synthetic fibers made to look like natural grass. It is most often used in arenas for sports that were originally or are normally played on grass. However, it is now being used on residential lawns and commercial applications as well...

fields - it is very slippery to ordinary sport shoes. The artificial grass differs from what is used in football

Football

Football may refer to one of a number of team sports which all involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball with the foot to score a goal. The most popular of these sports worldwide is association football, more commonly known as just "football" or "soccer"...

fields. The material used in pesäpallo fields is a mixture of sand and grass - which makes it seem like running on ball bearings.

There are only a few manufacturers producing spikes designed for pesäpallo and many players use normal running spikes. Some shoes have also spikes at the heel but mostly spikes are positioned under the ball of the foot. Usually there are seven spikes in a shoe and they are 3–15 millimeters long. When playing on artificial turf the maximum length of spikes is 6 millimeters.

Ball

Pesäpallo is only played with balls approved by Pesäpalloliitto. The circumference of the ball has to be 21.60-22.20 centimeters. The weight of the ball varies by series:

Men's ball 160-165 grams
Women's ball 135-140 grams
Junior ball 95-100 grams

The ball is yellow and balls approved by Pesäpalloliitto have a stamp. The balls to a game are provided by the home team. In the beginning of 2005 season a rule governing the ball's resiliency properties was introduced. The values are:

for a men's ball
- a new ball's resiliency percentage (at 130 km/h) must be between 44.5-45.5 %.
- a used ball's (70 times/130 km/h) resiliency percentage must be over 40 %.

for a women's ball
- a new ball's resiliency percentage (at 130 km/h) must be between 44.5-46 %.
- a used ball's (100 times/130 km/h) resiliency percentage must be over 43 %.

for a kid's ball
- a new ball's resiliency percentage (at 130 km/h) must be between 46-49 %.
- a used ball's (140 times/130 km/h) resiliency percentage must be over 45 %.

Competing

The Finnish championship series is known as Superpesis

Superpesis

Superpesis is the top division of the Finnish native sport pesäpallo in Finland. Both men's and women's top division is called Superpesis. Comprising 11 teams in men's league and 10 teams in women's league, one team faces relegation to Ykköspesis at the end of the season...

. Both men and women compete in their own series.

A World Cup is played internationally. In 2006 the fifth World Cup was played in Munich

Munich

Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...

, Germany. Participant countries included Australia

Australia

, Finland

Finland

, Germany

Germany

and Sweden

Sweden

External links

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