List of Bat and Ball Sports
There are dozens of bat and ball sports that are enjoyed by people of all ages throughout the world. While some of these are more common than others, and each has its own given sets of rules that individualize the sport, all of these sports are based around the concept of striking a ball with a bat to achieve a given objective. The following list contains bat and ball sports that people enjoy playing worldwide.
Bat and Ball Sports List
- 16-in Softball
- Baseball
- Bat and Trap
- Blind Cricket
- British Baseball
- Cricket
- Corkball
- Danish Longball
- Elle
- French Cricket
- Fuzzball
- Indoor Cricket
- Lapta
- Limited Overs Cricket
- Oina
- Old Cat
- One-Day International
- Over-the-Line
- Pesäpallo
- Rounders
- Scrub Baseball
- Shinty Hurling
- Slow-Pitch Softball
- Softball
- Stoolball
- Tee-ball
- Test Cricket
- The Massachusetts Game
- Twenty-20 Cricket
- Wiffle Ball
- Wireball
FAQ
What are bat and ball sports?
Bat and ball sports are sporting games based around the concept of striking a ball with some form of a bat. Depending on the specific sport, the goal of these bat and ball games can range from scoring runs by running on a given path, to simply striking a ball with a bat with an attempt to get it near a specific target.
Do all sports use a bat and ball?
While some of the most popular sports worldwide use a bat and a ball, not all sports follow this format. There are hundreds of sports that use a ball but do not have a bat involved for striking purposes. Some of these sports include soccer, which consists of kicking a ball rather than striking with a bat, as well as American football which consists of throwing a ball.
What are the most popular bat and ball sports in the world?
Arguably the two most popular bat and ball sports worldwide are baseball and cricket. Baseball is the second most popular sport in the United States, with an average of 68 million people in attendance each year at MLB games and an estimated 500 million fans worldwide. Cricket, on the other hand, may not be as popular in the United States, but is the second most popular sport in the world, with an estimated 2.5 billion fans.
Are bat and ball sports individual or team sports?
For the most part, bat and ball sports tend to be team sports. The most common bat and ball team sports include baseball, cricket, and softball. However, some of the smaller, less popular bat and ball sports that have been developed from subsets of baseball, such as wireball, which can be played with as few as two players competing head to head.
What are some common features of most bat and ball sports?
For all three sports, the main goal is to score runs by striking a ball with a bat and running along a path to generate these runs. These sports also include a pitching/throwing feature, where the opposing team pitches/throws the ball to the player attempting to strike the ball, as well as fielding feature, consisting of the opposing team retrieving the batted ball.