The two leagues, American and National, have slightly different rules.
The American League, our league, essentially allows 10 people on a team (at a time) for 9 batting positions and 9 fielding positions. The 9 of 10 need not be the same for batting and fielding.
This means that when batting, the 10th guy (David Ortiz, in our case), only has to bat and doesn't go out into the field to play defense. Meanwhile, a defensive player, almost always the pitcher, doesn't have to bat, because pitchers tend to be pretty lowsy batsmen. So in the American League, there's one guy who typically just hits, called the designated hitter, and the pitcher only pitches.
Int he National League, there's 9 people for 9 positions, so everybody on the team bats and everybody plays defense.
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The two leagues, American and National, have slightly different rules.
The American League, our league, essentially allows 10 people on a team (at a time) for 9 batting positions and 9 fielding positions. The 9 of 10 need not be the same for batting and fielding.
This means that when batting, the 10th guy (David Ortiz, in our case), only has to bat and doesn't go out into the field to play defense. Meanwhile, a defensive player, almost always the pitcher, doesn't have to bat, because pitchers tend to be pretty lowsy batsmen. So in the American League, there's one guy who typically just hits, called the designated hitter, and the pitcher only pitches.
Int he National League, there's 9 people for 9 positions, so everybody on the team bats and everybody plays defense.