The vice president of Chinese Taipei HappyBall association, Mr. Zhung Yang-Wen said the HappyBall was made by specific kind of form rubber; you cannot hit it very far nor break anything. People can play it on campus or in the stadium. It does not need a lot of space to play.
Special Rules
Mr. Chuang Yang Wen explained the special rules of Tee Ball to us and supplied related pictures for us to use.
In an official game, batter’s plate is a white rubber plate.
It is considered an outside ball if the batting distance is less than 5meter.
The batter runs to the orange end of the base and stays on the white end of the plate. Defense stands on whites only.
No sliding, off, or stealing the base allowed. The runner leaves the base only when a batter hits a ball.
The defense forces a runner out when he catches the ball and steps on the base.
The runner may not return to his original base once he runs more than 5 meter away.
Once a high flying ball is caught, the batter is “out” and the other runners must return to their original bases.
The map of a Tee Ball Field
Department of Education Promoting Tee Ball
Mr. Zhung joined the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association research and design team in 1996; he felt it would be very hard to popularize baseball if it was not allowed to play in most schools. Therefore, they started to think other practical ways to boost baseball activities. In order to fit the size of small playground of elementary school, they fixed up the equipment and set up the after school curriculum class in Chien-An elementary school. During the two year activities, the association drew up some suitable rules and invented the HappyBall. In 1998, the HappyBall was tried in Universities, high schools, and elementary schools. It was well-accepted. In 2001, it was formally named “HappyBall”, and promoted by the Department of Education.
