What’s that game they’re playing in the park in Finland?

It looks an awful lot like baseball. There are nine players in the field. A ball is being hit with a bat, and the batter is running around the bases. Fielders are trying to catch the ball and retire the runner. Three strikes and you’re out.

But wait a minute. The pitcher is standing right next to the batter, and throwing the ball straight up in the air. The bases aren’t in the usual places either. And a blast out of the park isn’t a home run — it’s a foul ball.

That’s because you’re watching the Finnish game of pesapallo. The similarities to baseball are striking — but so are the differences.

For one thing, it’s a lot easier to hit a vertical pitch, and batters can have a high degree of control over where and how hard they hit the ball. So the duel between the pitcher and the batter, so crucial in baseball, is de-emphasized in pesapallo.