Baseball is one of the most popular sports in the United States of America, and has also become popular in a few other countries around the world. It is a bat-and-ball team sport, played between two teams with nine players on each side. The goal of baseball is to score as many runs as possible, by hitting the ball and then running between a series of four bases. If a player reaches the fourth base, a run is made and added to the total. Players alternate between being the batting and fielding teams over a period of nine innings, and the team with the most runs at the end of the game is declared the winner. In order to understand why this game has become so popular with the American public, it is necessary to go back a little into the history of the sport and its relationship with the American people.

In North America, baseball games can be seen all over the country during the baseball season, both during the daytime and under outdoor lighting fixtures during the evenings. Strong flood lighting is essential in the game of baseball so that fans and players can see the fast moving ball as it is hit into the outfield. Americans have had a love affair with the game of baseball that has been going on since the 1800s, and especially since the introduction of the first professional league in the 1880s. It was in the mid 1850s in New York City where the popularity of baseball first reached craze proportions, and the game began to have a measured effect on the collective national psyche of the American people.

The first well recognised and formally structured National Baseball League was founded in 1876, and its major competitor – the American League, began in 1901. The National Agreement of 1903 formalised the relations between these two competing leagues and acted as a pact that united the overall baseball community. Baseball has become an American institution since this time, with games now regularly shown on television, and events often attended by families and baseball fans. As well as watching baseball games live under flood lights, many Americans choose to enjoy the sport from the comfort of their own living rooms and backyards. Baseball players spend a lot of time travelling, staying in different hotels around the country often becomes an occupational hazard during the baseball season. Many of the hotels are standard, but some offer the ultimate in accommodation as well as top spec bathroom lights (bathroom-lighting-centre.co.uk/…/lights-c-24.html) .

Just as it is an American tradition to go and watch a live baseball game, so it is to enjoy a game on TV while having a barbeque with friends and family. With the right lights for outdoor gardens, a good TV, and a selection of beer and other beverages, enjoying a game this way can even be better than watching it at the stadium. Whether they love the Toronto Blue Jays, the New York Yankees, or any of the other numerous teams in the national league – most Americans seem to love the game of baseball and associate it with a defining sense of national pride.