Global Obscure Sports: Pesapallo

Pesapallo - Finnish Baseball

Players Celebrating a big Pesapallo win

As opening day is today, we here at Global Obscure Sports are getting into the mood of baseball! However, not all countries play baseball the same, especially Finland. The national sport of Finland, Pesapallo, is an interesting derivative of baseball with several interest changes.

Pesapallo was first played in the 1920's by Lauri Pikhala, a Finnish Native, who attempted to popularize the sport in Finland. The sport has not quite reached popular status throughout the world, but has a huge cult following within Finland. There are over 15,000 registered players in Finland alone!

A Diagram of a Pesapallo Field

The rules are very similar to baseball, however with several huge differences. According to pesapello.net (an English version of the official website) here are the major differences between Pesapallo and Baseball:

Because battling is easer, there's a back line on the field, if a fly ball crosses the line before hitting the ground counts as a foul ball.
A batter's box is removed and the home plate serves as a pitching plate, which is round with a diameter of 60 cm.
Pitches are lifted straight upwards from above the pitching plate, and the batter hits the ball when it drops down. There is no catcher; the ball hitting the pitching plate is a miss.
The strike zone is rather different, the ball is good if it was lifted at least one meter above the heads and it hits the pitching plate.
Walking requires fewer invalid pitches.
Catching a ball in flight is not an automatic out, but forces all runners not on a base to return to home base. To put a runner out the ball must be thrown to base before runner gets there.
The batter is not required to run after hitting the ball on his first or second strike.
The bases are not in a diamond shape, players have to 'zig zag' the court.
The distance between bases vay, the shortest is the distance between home base and first base, the longest is between third base and home base.

Want to read more about this interesting sport? Check out these links! We looked into Finland's #1 domestic Social Media Site titled IRC-galleria.com however were not able to find specific Pespallo blogs. Here are some other social media links:

Official Site: http://www.pesis.fi/pesapalloliitto/international_site/

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yAwTUy104I&feature=player_embedded

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pes%C3%A4pallo

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Pes%C3%A4pallo/105855952780593?sk=info

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/pesapallo

Check back soon for more exciting updates!