There are various modern day sports that people engage in today. Among the most established of these, both globally and locally, are football, baseball and basketball. This paper seeks to make a general discussion of these three popular sports.
Football
Arguably the most popular game in the world as evidenced by the global spectacle that is the World Cup held every four years, football simply refers to the sport that entails kicking a ball with one’s foot with the objective of scoring a goal. This type of football falls under the category of association football, which is also invariably referred to as soccer. However, football may also refer to the type or form of football that is most prevalent in a given geographical area of the world. Thus, unqualified use of the word football gives rise to American Football, Canadian Football and other variations of football known as football codes.
A game of football usually comprises two teams of eleven players each. Each team’s main objective is to score as many goals as possible against their opponents. The team that scores more goals is usually the winner. The game is played in two halves of forty five minutes each with a fifteen minute break in between. Football or soccer has a global following and is popular in many countries to the extent that a global football tournament is held every four years. Additionally, the wide popularity of football is shown by the number of countries which are members of FIFA, the global body which regulates matters to do with football. FIFA draws its membership from over 120 countries spread across the entire globe.
Basketball
Like football, basketball is also a team sport but its main aim is to shoot a ball through a basket, usually horizontally positioned, so as to score points. Basketball is played by use of the hands and a player is only allowed to move with the ball while dribbling it on the court or when in flight. He/she is not allowed to move with the ball while holding it like in games such as rugby or American Football. Like football, basketball has its own set of rules and is usually played by two teams of five members each in a marked rectangular court which has two baskets at each end.
A team amasses points when a player shoots the ball through the opposing team’s basket and depending on the player’s distance from the basket, a successful shot through the basket may be worth two or three points. In the end, the team that has the highest number of points is usually declared the winner. In basketball, due to the nature of amassing points in the game, both teams may end up with many points; the team with more points is the winner. Conversely, in football, there are usually no more than ten goals in any given game. However, like in basketball, the team with more goals is the one that is declared the winner.
Though popular in some parts of the world such as the USA, basketball lags in popularity when compared to football in other parts of the world. Perhaps this is due to the technicalities of the game as compared to football, which, in most cases, may not even require a proper soccer ball. Indeed, in many parts of Africa and Asia, children use home-made balls to play football and some have turned out to be successful professional footballers playing for the best football leagues in the world.
Baseball
Compared to basketball and football, baseball lags way behind in terms of popularity both globally and even locally. Perhaps this is due to the existence of more technicalities and requirements in the game of baseball compared to basketball and football. A game of baseball is usually played by eighteen players split into two teams each comprising of nine players. Baseball may be defined as a ball and bat game where the main objective is to score runs. This is done through hitting a thrown ball using a bat and systematically touching four bases arranged at the corner of 90-foot kite. The team with the highest number of runs at the end of the game is usually declared the winner.
In both basketball and football, the players are all usually after one ball with the aim of putting it through a goalpost in the case of football, or basket in the case of basketball. Baseball is a stark contrast to the two games as it involves a player, usually called the pitcher of the fielding team throwing a ball with the players on the team taking turns to hit against the pitcher. The fielding team tries to prevent runs by getting the players who are batting out in several ways governed by the rules of baseball. The two teams switch between fielding and batting whenever, the fielding team records three outs.
In conclusion, the limited popularity of baseball is further illustrated by the fact that unlike both football and basketball, which have periodic global tournaments, there is no global baseball tournament as the game is virtually non-existent in some countries of the world.
