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:''Catcher is also a general term for a fielder who catches the ball in cricket.'' Catcher is a position for a baseball or softball player. When a batter takes his/her turn to hit, the catcher crouches behind home plate, in front of the (home) umpire, and receives the ball from the pitcher. In addition to these primary duties, the catcher is also called upon to master many other skills in order to field the position well. The role of the catcher is similar to that of the wicket-keeper in cricket. Positioned behind home plate, the catcher can see the whole field, and is therefore in the best position to direct and lead the other players in a defensive play. The catcher typically calls for pitches using hand signals. The calls are based on the pitcher's mechanics and strengths, as well as the batter's tendencies and weaknesses. Foul tips, bouncing balls in the dirt, and contact with runners during plays at the plate are all events to be handled by the catcher, necessitating the use of protective equipment. This includes a mask, chest and throat protectors, shin guards, and a heavily padded catcher's mitt. Because the position requires a comprehensive understanding of the game's strategies, the pool of former catchers yields a disproportionate number of managers in both Major League Baseball and Minor League Baseball, including such prominent examples as Connie Mack, Steve O'Neill, Al Lopez, Yogi Berra, Gary Carter, Mike Scioscia, Bruce Bochy, Joe Torre, Joe Girardi, Mike Matheny, Ned Yost and Brad Ausmus. The physical and mental demands of being involved on every defensive play can wear catchers down over a long season, and can have a negative effect on their offensive output. Because of the strategic defensive importance of catching, if a catcher has exceptional defensive skills, teams are often willing to overlook their relative offensive weaknesses.〔 A knowledgeable catcher's ability to work with the pitcher, via pitch selection and location, can diminish the effectiveness of the opposing team's offense. Many great defensive catchers toiled in relative anonymity, because they did not produce large offensive numbers. Notable examples of light-hitting, defensive specialists were; Ray Schalk, Jim Hegan, Jim Sundberg and Brad Ausmus. Schalk's career batting average of .253 is the lowest of any position player in the Baseball Hall of Fame. That he was selected for enshrinement in 1955 was largely a tribute to his outstanding defensive skills.〔 Catchers are often able to play first base and less commonly third base. In the numbering system used to record baseball plays, the catcher is assigned the number '2'. (See ''Baseball scorekeeping''.) ==History and progression of the position== In the middle of the nineteenth century, the game of baseball began to evolve from a sport played by amateurs for recreation into a more serious game played by professionals. One of the most dramatic changes was the transition of the pitcher's delivery from an underhand motion to an overhanded throw.〔 Before the American Civil War, the pitcher's role was to initiate the action by offering an underhanded throw to the batter, in much the same way that a basketball referee offers up a jump ball to begin play.〔 Since this type of pitching often caused the batter to hit lazy, foul pop-ups, catchers played their position approximately twenty to twenty-five feet behind the batter, and wore no protective equipment.〔 As the game progressed towards professionals and became more serious, pitchers began to attempt to prevent the batter from hitting the ball by throwing faster pitches.〔 With the introduction of the called strike in , catchers began inching closer to home plate due to the rules requirement that a strikeout could only be completed by a catch.〔 The rules governing the delivery of pitches proved to be hard to enforce, and pitchers continued to stretch the boundaries of the rules until by the 1870s, the release point of pitches had reached the pitcher's waist level.〔 These developments meant that catchers began to take on a crucial defensive role, as a pitcher's deceptive deliveries could only be effective if the catcher was capable of fielding them.〔 The progression of the catcher positioning himself closer to the plate would lead to changes in pitching deliveries that would revolutionize the sport.〔 In the 1870s, pitcher Candy Cummings was able to introduce the curveball because his catcher, Nat Hicks, fielded his position in close proximity to home plate and was able to catch the deceptive pitch.〔 Other specialized pitches such as the spitball and the knuckleball followed, which further emphasized the defensive importance of the catcher's position.〔 The rising velocity of pitches in conjunction with catchers moving closer to home plate significantly increased the risk of injuries for catchers, especially face and hand injuries. By the late 1870s, catchers began to use padded, fingerless gloves to protect their hands, and in the first protective catcher's mask was used.〔 The first catchers to use protective masks sometimes had their courage called into question, but the effectiveness of the masks meant that they became widely accepted.〔 In the 1880s, the first padded chest protectors came into use, and in specialized catcher's mitts used on the non-throwing hand began to be used.〔 At about the same time that catchers began fielding their position closer to home plate, baseball teams began using a less rubbery ball which led to a decline in the number of runs scored. In the 1860s it was common for teams to score fifty or sixty runs in a game.〔 The combination of the new, harder ball and the continuation of the rise in pitcher's release points helped usher in what became known as the Dead-ball era.〔 The decrease in run production placed greater significance on stolen bases and bunts, which in turn emphasized the crucial defensive role played by catchers.〔 Together, the rules changes and the new protective equipment transformed the catcher's defensive role to the way that it is presently played.〔 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「catcher」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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