Pesäpallo (Finnish pronunciation: [ˈpesæˌpɑlːo]; lit. 'nest ball'; Swedish: Boboll, colloquially known in Finnish as pesis and also referred to as Finnish baseball) is a fast-moving bat-and-ball sport that is often referred to as the national sport of Finland and has some presence in other places including Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, and Canada's northern Ontario (the latter two countries have significant Nordic populations). It is similar to brännboll, rounders, lapta, and baseball.
The basic idea of pesäpallo is similar to that of baseball: the offense tries to score by hitting the ball successfully and running through the bases, while the defense tries to put the batter and runners out. One of the most important differences between pesäpallo and baseball is that the ball is pitched vertically, which makes hitting the ball, as well as controlling the power and direction of the hit, much easier. This gives the offensive game more variety, speed, and tactical aspects compared to baseball. The fielding team is forced to counter the batter's choices with defensive schemes and anticipation.
The manager has an important role in pesäpallo, leading the offense by giving signals to the players using a multicoloured fan. The defensive team play is directed by the manager's orders and hand signals by the fielders.
Pesäpallo, a combination of traditional ball-batting team games and North American baseball, was invented by Lauri "Tahko" Pihkala in the 1920s. It has changed with the times and grown in popularity. On 14 November 1920, it was played the first time at Kaisaniemi Park in Helsinki. Pesäpallo was a demonstration sport at the 1952 Summer Olympics, held in Helsinki, Finland.
The main leagues began to be called Superpesis in 1990, and they were also heavily marketed. Veikkaus introduced pesäpallo's sports betting to Finland in 1993. However, in connection with this, pesäpallo was plunged into the biggest crisis in its history due to the 1998 match-fixing scandal.
The first Pesäpallo World Cup was held in 1992, but the World Pesäpallo Federation (WPF) was not formed at that time, according to Guinness World Records. The tournament featured seven nations: Finland, Sweden, Australia, Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, and Japan. The World Pesäpallo Federation was established later.
A regular pesäpallo game is played in two periods of four innings each. A period is won by the team which scores the most runs in its offensive half-innings. If a period ends in a tie, there is no tie-breaker and neither team receives a point for that period.
If the periods are tied (If each team wins 1 period each, or both periods are tied), there will be an extra (9th) inning; if needed, there is a round (similar to a penalty shootout) where the teams start with a runner on third base and try to get a score from that runner.
During an inning, both teams take turns playing offense (batting) and defense (fielding).
The offensive team can continue batting until three players have been put out or one round of the batting order has been completed without at least two runs scored. The batter and the pitcher face each other at the home base, on opposite sides of the circular plate; so that if a batter is right-handed, the pitcher stands on the right, and vice versa. The pitch is delivered by throwing the ball directly upwards above the plate, at least 1 meter over the head of the pitcher.
Both teams have a pelinjohtaja, lit. a game leader or more simply, a team's manager. The captain of the team – one of the players – tries to beat the other team's captain in the hutunkeitto (lit. 'porridge making ("boiling of porridge")'), where the captains take turns holding the bat increasingly higher up, with the umpire constantly checking if the hand positions are valid. The one who first gets contact on the top of the bat in a valid position wins, and gets to choose whether to start on offence or defence.
The team playing the offensive half has nine batters, and three additional batters known as jokers (Named for the playing card and resembles designated hitters). Whereas ordinary batters must bat in a pre-designated batting order, the joker batters are allowed to enter the order at any point.
Today, players strategy-wise usually have a specialised role in the batting order depending on their abilities. Fast runners are usually positioned first in the batting order, after which come players who specialize in advancing runners between bases. Next comes a player specializing in scoring runners home. Players from 6 to 9 often form another attacking combination. The jokers are usually a selection of either batting jokers (good hitters specializing in scoring) or runner jokers (fast runners specializing in advancing in the field).
The batter has three strikes available during their turn at bat. A fair hit does not require the batter to reach base; all three strikes can be used before the batter must reach first base. A pitch counts as a strike if the batter takes a swing at the ball and the umpire rules the pitch legal. When a batter makes a fair hit, unless it is the third strike, the batter does not have to try to advance safely to the first base. However, if the batter hits a foul ball on the third strike and does not try to advance, only that player is out and the runners continue with the next batter.
The batter can also try to steal first base on a foul pitch.
If the pitcher delivers one single bad pitch (Ball), the batter is granted a walk to the first base if there are no runners on base. If there are runners on any base, the first bad pitch to a specific hitter is unpunished, but the point runner (the runner at the highest-numbered base) is granted a walk to the next base for the second and all consecutive bad pitches pitched for the same hitter. A pitch can be ruled as foul for various reasons, most common ones being that the ball does not fall on the plate or that the pitch is not thrown high enough.
A hit is a foul ball if the ball first touches the field outside of the main area; the batter or the runners cannot advance on a foul ball.
Players generally have little difficulty hitting the ball, so the main target is not just hitting the ball but selecting a suitable type of hit and directing it correctly. There are many different types of hits used, here are a few examples: