What is Pesäpallo

Pesapällo is a fast paced bat and ball sport rich in tactics and steeped in history and culture in Finland
Photograph from Sotkamo Facebook (c) Sotkamon Jymy 2019

What is Pesäpallo

Pesäpallo is a sport originating in Finland, it is often referred to as Finnish baseball or Pesis. Pesäpallo is a bat and ball sport between 2 teams that has a number of similarities to baseball. To understand the core mechanics behind pesäpallo, one must understand the circumstances in which it was created. In 1920’s Finland, there was a fear of invasion and being dragged into conflicts with neighbouring Russia (USSR). Finland was a rural country still recovering from a civil war in 1918 and an end to Russian control and influence. As a result of this turbulent political time, there was a drive towards military training, fitness and preparedness. The themes behind pesäpallo include: precision throwing and hitting, running and ducking/sliding for cover and using signals and teamwork from to make it to safety, all of which are vital transferable skills in the event of an invasion.

Pesäpallo is credited as being invented by Lauri “Tahko” Pihkala, where the aim of the game being similar to that of baseball: the offense tries to score by hitting the ball successfully and running through the bases, while the defense tries to prevent the runners from advancing and putting the batter and runners out. Whilst this core is consistent with baseball, there are a number of differences to the two games.

As the sport became established in Finland, a national competition was established, which has gone through a number of formats before its current iteration. At present pesapällo in Finland is played professionally in a tiered league format, with the top division being Superpesis, which is played equally between men’s and women’s leagues. This change came about in 1989 and the second tier is Ykköspesis. The tiered system allows for a promotion and relegation system, which has its or seen many different formats to determine who will go up and down each year. Superpesis and Ykköspesis both have a regular season and a post-season, which determines who will be promoted and relegated, as well as who will take gold, silver or bronze in Superpesis.

Internationally, pesäpallo has been very much under the radar and still remains a mystery to most outside of Finland. In the 1952 Olympic Games, hosted by Helsinki, pesapällo was a demonstration sport where a game was paid on 31st July between the Finnish Baseball Federation and the Finnish Worker’s Sports Federation. Lauri Pihkali was honoured by throwing a ceremonial first pitch in front of a massive crowd of 19,309 people. The game was commentated in Finnish, Swedish and English but took a more leisurely pace than that seen in the national competition owing to the nature being an “exhibition” game. The game was reduced to just an hours playing time and ended 8-4 in favour of the Finnish Baseball Federation. Today, Pesäpallo is played around the world in various countries including Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia and Canada as well as informally elsewhere. Pesäpallo is a niche sport and very little information is available in English on the internet; however this blog aims to spread the popularity and accessibility of this sport.

Core Rules of Pesäpallo

In the modern professional game, a game is played in two periods (jakso) of four innings each. Each inning is divided into 2 halves, where each team will have an offensive half (batting) and defensive half (fielding). A period is won by the team which scores more runs in its offensive half-innings. If each of the teams wins one period, the game will be decided by an extra period (supervuoro) which consists of one inning. If the game remains tied after an extra period, a special scoring contest is played where a batting pair attempts to score runs by bringing a running partner home from 3rd base. 

During an inning both teams take turns playing offense (batting) and defense (fielding).

The defensive team has nine players on the field. The offensive team can use three jokers (designated hitters) during one half-inning in addition to the nine players in the regular batting order. These jokers can be inserted into the batting lineup at any point. The offensive team can continue batting until three players have been put out or one round of the batting order has been completed without at least two runs scored. The batter and the pitcher face each other in the home base, on opposite sides of the circular plate. The pitch is delivered by throwing the ball directly upwards above the plate, to a height of at least 1 metre over the head of the pitcher.

The batter has three strikes available on his turn at bat. A fair hit does not force him to advance; he can become a runner at any point before using all three strikes at which point he must become a runner. A pitch counts as a strike, if the batter takes a swing at the ball or if the umpire rules the pitch legal, i.e it is above 1 metre higher than the pitcher’s head and would land on the home plate. If the pitcher delivers a bad pitch (ball), the batter is granted a walk to the first base only if the field is empty. If there are runners on the field, the point runner is granted a walk to the next base for the second bad pitch. A pitch is ruled bad, if the ball does not fall on the plate, if the pitch is too low or if the pitcher commits some other form of violation.

A hit is foul if the ball first touches the field outside of the boundaries. The batter or the runners cannot advance on a foul hit. If the fielders get control of the ball before it touches the field, the hit is a catch and all runners who tried to advance on that play are caught. Players who have been caught are removed from the field, but they do not count as outs.

After the batter becomes a runner, he must try to advance safely to the first base. The runner reaches safety on a base by touching the base area before the ball is thrown to a fielder in the base. If the ball gets to the base first, the runner is put out and removed from the field. The batter is also put out, if his third strike is foul hit. A runner on a base is forced to advance, if the next runner reaches safety on the same base.

The offensive team scores a run, when a runner returns safely to the home base after advancing safely through all three field bases. If a batter advances to the third base on his own fair hit, he scores a home run (kunniajuoksu). He can then stay on the third base and try to score again as a regular runner by reaching the home base on a later play.

Field of play

Coming soon

Pesäpallo v Baseball

Pesäpallo’s roots are borrowed from baseball, but there are a number of significant differences that would confuse those familiar with America’s pastime. A list of differences include:

Pesäpallo	Baseball
Vertical pitching - the pitcher stands next to the batter and must throw the ball up over 1m above home plate	Horizontal pitching - the pitcher is on a mound 18.39m (60’ 6”) from home plate and the ball is thrown horizontally to the batter
Batters - the 9 players who have allocated fielding positions will bat at a position in the lineup, but in every inning the team my insert a “joker” to bat anywhere in the lineup. There are 3 jokers on the team lineup and a maximum of 3 jokers can be used in an inning	Batters - traditionally the 9 players who have allocated fielding positions are the only players who can bat. The exception is where the designated hitter rule is used, where the pitcher is taken out of the lineup in place of a batter. The designated hitter has a fixed position in the lineup. The only other technical exception is where a pinch hitter takes the place of another player in the lineup (substitution)
Walks - if the bases are empty, 1 bad pitch (that doesn’t fall on the home plate) will advance the batter to first. If there is one or more runners on the bases, 2 bad pitches will advance the lead runner to the next base	Walks - if the pitcher throws 4 balls (bad pitches) the batter progresses to first base
Hits - the batter has 3 strikes/attempts to reach first base. The batter may advance on any of them, but will be out if they don’t reach first base safely before they run out of strikes	Hits - if the batter hits the ball and it doesn’t go behind the foul lines the batter must run
Home runs - if the batter goes beyond the backfield line (or any wall etc) without hitting the ground it is called a strike and the batter or runners cannot advance. A kunniajuoksu (home run) is the same as a triple in baseball, I.e the batter registers a fair hit and reaches third base. In such a circumstance the batter scores a run but remains at third base, therefore there is a chance for the batter to come home and score off another batters hit	Home runs - a batter can score a run if they hit the ball beyond the backfield line (or any wall etc) without hitting the ground. A batter can also score a home run by rounding the bases in order and reaching home off their hit (in-the-park home run)
Uniforms - one thing that will be confusing to the eye, for those familiar with baseball uniforms, is that in Superpesis uniforms are covered with various sponsors. Those familiar with football (soccer) or Rugby (league and union) will be familiar with sponsorship on uniforms	Uniforms - there are no sponsors on uniforms and generally speaking are muted in colour
Outs - being caught is not classed as being out, rather any runners advancing (including the batter) is classed as “wounded” and is removed from the field of play	If a ball is caught, even if it is outside of the field of play, the batter is put out and runners must return to the base they started at if they were attempting to advance. Once the catch is made however the runner may attempt to advance normally