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In the sport of baseball, small ball is an informal term for an offensive strategy in which the batting team emphasizes placing runners on base and then advancing them into scoring position for a run in a deliberate, methodical way. This strategy places a high value on individual runs and attempts to score them without requiring extra base hits, or sometimes without base hits at all, instead using bases on balls, stolen bases, sacrifice bunt or sacrifice fly balls, the hit-and-run play, and aggressive baserunning with such plays as the contact play. A commonly used term for a run produced playing small ball is a "manufactured run". This style of play is more often found in National League game situations than in the American League due in large part to the absence of the designated hitter in the National League.〔http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9841850/site/newsweek/page/2/〕〔(''Is the small-ball strategy effective in winning games? A stochastic frontier production approach'' by Young Hoon Lee )〕 Teams may incorporate a small-ball strategy for a variety of reasons, including: # They are confident that their pitching staff will allow very few runs, thus one or two runs may win the game. # The opposing pitching staff allows few hits, especially extra-base hits, and small ball may be the best way to score runs at all. # The team lacks consistent hitters and must find a way to score runs with few base hits. # The team has several members who are very quick and are likely to steal bases, or go from first base to third base on a single. # The team is in the late innings of a close game and a single run will tie the game, break a tie, or extend a narrow lead. Most commonly, managers will switch to small-ball tactics while a game is in progress, doing so upon the convergence of a variety of factors including having appropriate hitters coming up next in the batting order and, often, having fast runners already on base. A team could also start the game with the intention of playing small ball but then change from this strategy at some point during a game, depending on circumstances, such as when the opposing pitcher is struggling or has left the game or when the team is ahead or behind by several runs. ==Background== Small ball is a contrast to a style sometimes called the "big inning", where batters focus more on drawing walks or getting extra-base hits and home runs. This may produce many innings with little but strikeouts and flyouts, but occasionally innings with several runs. By playing small ball, the team trades the longer odds of a big inning for the increased chances of scoring a single run. Specifically, small ball often requires the trading of an out to advance a runner and therefore usually reduces the number of batting opportunities that a team will have in a given inning. Small ball was once the standard by which the game was played during the "dead-ball era" at the beginning of the 20th century, when both batting averages and home-run totals dropped to historic lows.〔(Yearly League Leaders & Records for Batting Average at Baseball Reference )〕〔(Yearly League Leaders & Records for Home Runs at Baseball Reference )〕 Teams relied on bunting and stolen bases to score runs. The advent of new, cork-centered baseballs in , as well as the outlawing of specialty pitches such as the spitball, saw a jump in batting averages and home runs.〔(Evolution of the Ball, Baseball Digest, July 1963, Vol. 22, No. 6, ISSN 0005-609X )〕 By the 1950s, small ball had been forgotten with most teams relying on power hitters such as Mickey Mantle and Harmon Killebrew to score runs.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=A Fond Farewell To A Baseball Man Who Wasn't Afraid To Take Chances )〕 Stolen bases totals were at a nadir, with Dom DiMaggio leading the American League in with just 15 stolen bases.〔(Yearly League Leaders & Records for Stolen Bases at Baseball Reference )〕 When Paul Richards took over as the manager of the Chicago White Sox in , his team had few power hitters, so he decided that he needed to manufacture runs by emphasizing speed as well as a strong defense.〔 The White Sox became a contender and eventually, the team known as the Go-Go Sox won the American League championship in by relying on speed and defense. The Los Angeles Dodgers also used the strategy during the 1960s to win the World Series twice during the decade, relying on the pitching of Cy Young Award winners Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, and the base running of shortstop Maury Wills, who stole a then-record 104 bases in 1962. Small ball has become less common because of the general trend toward smaller parks and more home runs, especially in the American League where the designated hitter rule further increases offensive power. However, all big league managers are still skilled at managing from a small ball perspective, as it is sometimes necessary, especially in critical games. White Sox manager Ozzie Guillén was widely credited for saying his 2005 World Series champion team played not small ball or big inning ball, but "smart ball", which has come to mean a more adaptable strategy. The general idea of playing small ball is much more widely accepted and used in Japan; many good hitters will frequently be asked to lay down a sacrifice bunt in favor of advancing a runner if the lead off batter reached first or second base (thereby resulting in the batting team having a runner on with no outs to start the inning). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Small ball (baseball)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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