Finnish baseball

(Excerpted from "British and Finnish Baseball: International Variations on an American Pastime," by Emyr W. Williams, Jan–Erik Romar and Michael Hartman, published in Strategies: A Journal for Physical and Sport Educators [Jan–Feb 2010] and available in Academic OneFile.)

As Finnish baseball is a direct descendant of American baseball, the same bats, balls, bases etc., are used for this sport. The major difference, however, is where the bases are located, and consequently the direction that batters run the bases, how runs are scored, and how outs are determined. Although Pulitzer Prize winning sports journalist Red Smith (Smith, 1952) wasn’t thrilled with Finnish baseball or as he called it a "Monstrous Infant," one of his major criticisms of the game in 1952 was that the ball was continually in play. More than fifty years later, this continuous activity aspect may be part of why this sport is appropriate for physical education curriculum. If Finnish baseball was derived from traditional baseball, what then makes it different?

Since Finnish baseball is directly derived from the American version of the game, many of the rules are similar (number of players, definition of an inning, and generally how runs are scored). However, there are unique rule variations which are completely different to traditional baseball/ softball such as the direction in which players run the bases, the distances between bases, and how players are defined as being out.

The emphasis of the game of Finnish baseball is on running around the bases, not hitting "home runs" out of the park. Therefore, the batter attempts to hit the ball to positions on the field that enables him/her or the other base runners, to advance safely around the bases. Consequently, strategy plays a large part when hitting the ball and running the bases, making this game a highly active and running-intensive version of baseball.

Having introduced [Finnish] baseball to middle school physical education classes, what did the students think about these sports?

Many students surprisingly liked the zig-zag direction that players ran the bases. Although at first the zig-zag pattern is a major difference, the distance between the bases in Finnish baseball provides a challenge.

Additionally, a player cannot hit a home run, meaning that even on long hits the batters are forced to run the bases. As a result of the distance that the batter has to run (nearly 140 yards), it is virtually impossible to hit the ball to far enough to allow the batter to get around all of the bases. At best, the batter on a good hit may be able to make it to third before being held up by the fielding team.

Some students did not like the fact that "the field was too short" and found it difficult to control the force and direction of their swing.