Pesäpallo is a fast-moving ball sport somewhat similar to baseball. It is the de facto national sport of Finland and has some presence in other countries, such as Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, and Northern Ontario in Canada (Both Australia and Northern Ontario have high Finnish and Scandinavian populations). Pesäpallo was developed and refined by Lauri "Tahko" Pihkala, who based it on baseball and some local games, around 1910-1920. The rules have remained the same since, aside from some fine-tuning in the 1990s by the Pesäpalloliitto, the governing pesäpallo federation in Finland. The basic structure of the game is identical to baseball's. Pesäpallo has 3 out-bases and a homebase. Players use a bat to hit the ball out to catchers, then move from base to base trying to arrive before the ball.

Differences

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The more significant differences between baseball and pesäpallo include:

• The layout of the bases is different, and the playfield is more rectangular.
• A batter's box is removed and the home plate serves as a pitching plate; there is no catcher. Pitches are thrown straight upwards, and the batter tries to hit the ball when it drops down.
• The strike zone is rather different, and walking requires fewer invalid pitches.
• Catching a ball in flight is not an out, but forces all runners not on a base to return to home base.
• The batter is not required to run after hitting the ball on his first or second strike.
• Hitting the ball over the back line on the fly counts as a foul ball.

External links

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• Pesäpalloliitto
• Superpesis
• Pesäpallo World Cup 2006
• Internet Introduction to Finnish Baseball/Pesäpallo
• German Pesäpallo League

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