Baseball is the most popular national game in the United States. It is not only played by high school and college teams and professionals, but also played by children.

　　Baseball is largely a spectator sport. Therefore, baseball players, especially professional baseballers play a very important role in American everyday life. The following example can illustrate its popularity and importance in the American society. There was a baseball strike across the country in the summer of 1981. The baseball players went on strike, complaining that the owners were trying to rob them of benefits that they had earlier won.

　　The strike came at a time when baseball games were breaking all attendance records of the year. According to American newspapers, American baseball fans were greatly upset and went into an uproar. Many papers claimed that had the former Soviet Union invaded into the United States, the news could not have brought about a more profoundly un-American summer than the one that had thus suddenly appeared.

　　To many Americans, baseball is a thing that they can never do without.

　　The popularity of baseball games can also be demonstrated in some idiomatic English expressions which have originated from it. There is the term hit-and-run, which may be applied to an automobile driver who escapes from the scene of the accident which he has caused. In a baseball game, very often the picher will play tricks when serving the ball, in order that the batsman can not make it. Then he will say "the pictcher is throwing me a curve ball." And this expression is often borrowed by a businessman for giving vent to his anger when he finds himself decieved in a transaction. And go to the bat for you means "help you out of a bad situation," do somehting off one's own bat means "do it without help."

　　棒球是美国人最喜爱的体育运动。不仅大、中学运动队以及职业球队打棒球，就是孩子们也玩棒球。

　　棒球主要是一项表演性运动。因此，棒球运动员，尤其是职业球员，对美国的日常生活有极其重大的影响。以下例子足以说明棒球在美国社会中的受欢迎程度和重要性。

　　一九八一年夏天，全美棒球运动员举行罢工。这次罢工是为了抗议老板试图剥夺他们原来应有的收益。

　　罢工正是在棒球比赛行将打破历年观众上座率纪录的时候发生的。据美国报纸报道，美国的棒球迷全给惹翻了，吵得不可开交。不少报纸声称，即使报道前苏联入侵美国，也绝不会带来象这样一个突如其来的、如此一反常态的夏天。

　　对许多美国人来讲，棒球确实是一种不可或缺的东西。

　　有些起源于棒球的英语习惯用法也足以说明棒球比赛的广泛性。其中有个术语叫“偷垒”，可借用来称那种从车祸现场溜走的肇事司机。在棒球比赛中，投手经常在投球是耍花招来破坏击球手击球，那时击球手会说：“投手给我扔了一个弧圈球。”这一说法就常被交易中发现自己上当受骗的商人借以泄愤。“为你拿起球棒”，意思是“帮助你摆脱困境”；“用自己的球棒干”意思是不需要别人帮忙做事。