Info about Home Runs
Understanding Home Runs
Baseball is a very popular game in North America. The game is followed by many people in that continent and gets participation from many countries around the world. The main idea in this game is for the striker to hit the ball hurled at him and score runs. The most straight forward way to get a run is to hit the ball out of the park and this is called home run.
Home runs are the most popular shots in baseball today. They bring excitement to the game and obviously help the teams win games too. There are two ways that a home run can be scored in baseball and both are equally challenging.
Outside the Park Home Run
This is probably the most celebrated shot in baseball. If the striker can hit the ball out of the playing area then it automatically counts as a home run. The batter is awarded a run for the same. The assumption with this kind of home run is that the ball will not come back into the playing field.
However there are some special situations where that may not be the case. If the ball hits the foul pole or any attached screen and comes back, the striker is awarded a home run. Similarly if the fielder tries to prevent the ball from going out by any unfair means like throwing a glove or helmet, then the batter gets the home run.
Inside the Park home run:
This is fast becoming very rare in the modern baseball game with better outfielders around. In this case, the batter manages to circle all the bases after a single strike while the ball is in play. The outfields in the olden days were pretty large. This meant that getting an outside the park home run was very rare. However, if the runners were fast, they could get the inside the park home run easily.
With modernisation of the game, the outfield sizes have shrunk and this means that inside the park home runs are very rare today. The occasion when you may actually see one is if the fielder misjudges a shot from the striker and the runners on the bases are very quick.
These are the technical details of this concept, however given its popularity the term home run is used in many other situations too. A common place where this is used in stock markets or other investments. Stock markets can swing quickly. So if you make an investment and that increases in value tremendously in a short time period it is termed as a home run. Investors commonly say, “I scored a home run with that stock”.
Similarly if the company chairman makes a great speech that is widely accepted by media and the markets he is supposed to have scored a home run too. So essentially, if you get anything absolutely right, you can term that as a home run. This is true too, because unless everything goes right you are not going to get the ball out of the park!