Palant
Palant is a game of Polish origin that is played using a wooden stick and a rubber ball. The sport has lots of similarities to modern baseball, and there are even some theories that suggest baseball was derived from palant played by Polish immigrants.
The game is played in a 60 x 25 field. The field is split into two zones, "heaven" and "hell". There is a home base in the heaven zone and three bases in the hell zone. The wooden stick used looks similar to that of a baseball bat but is much smaller measuring between 66 and 88cm in length.
A match is played between two teams, with 7 to 15 players per team for two 20-minute periods. Both teams alternate between batting and fielding after all players of the batting team gets out. Batting happens in the heaven zone. All players from the batting team line up next to the home base and get to strike the ball once. There is no pitching in palant, the batting player just tosses the ball up in the air and strikes it.
The batting player can run bases if the ball enters the hell zone, and is considered as out if it does not reach the heaven zone, or is caught in full in the hell zone. One full trip around the bases is considered as a run, and the team to score most runs wins the match.
Similar Sports
- Baseball — a bat and ball game in which the aim is to hit the ball and score runs by running around four bases.
- Brännboll — a Scandinavian game that has similarities to rounders, but with no pitcher.
- Lapta — a Russian traditional bat and ball game.
- Oină – a Romanian traditional sport, similar in many ways to Baseball and Lapta played outdoors by two teams of 11 players, taking turns either batting or catching.
- Danish Longball — a bat and ball game developed in Denmark, like a hybrid of baseball and cricket.
Related Pages
- Sport in Poland
- Complete list of sports
- The Encyclopedia of Sports
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