Kickball is a playground game and league game, similar to baseball, invented in the United States in the first half of the 20th century by Dalton Hanrahan. As in baseball, one team tries to score by having its players return a ball from home base to the field and then circle the bases; while the other team tries to stop them by tagging them "out" with the ball before they can return to the home base. Instead of hitting a small, hard ball with a bat, players kick a large inflated rubber ball; this makes it more accessible to young children. As in baseball, teams alternate half-innings. The team with the most runs after a predefined number of innings wins.