MVP MENTALITY SPORTS PSYCHOLOGY

Baseball is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of nine players who take turns batting and fielding. The offense attempts to score runs by hitting a ball thrown by the pitcher with a bat and moving counter-clockwise around a series of four bases: first, second, third and home plate. A run is scored when the runner advances around the bases and returns to home plate.

Players on the batting team take turns hitting against the pitcher of the fielding team, which tries to prevent runs by getting hitters out in any of several ways. A player on the batting team can stop at any of the bases and later advance on a teammate's hit or other means. The teams switch between batting and fielding whenever the fielding team records three outs. One turn at bat for both teams, beginning with the visiting team, constitutes an inning, and nine innings a game. The team with the greater number of runs at the end of the game wins.

Baseball players can present with various mental obstacles as the game requires quick decisions under pressure. Players need to be able to transition back and forth between offensive and defensive skills as the innings change, which requires a great deal of mental flexibility.