Pesäpallo, the national sport of Finland.

These photos are taken in Ikaalinen, a town among the most beautiful tows in Finland. The pesäpallo game was between the home team Ikaalisten Tarmo and the guest team Kannuksen Ura.

In a town of Ikaalinen.

The home team Ikaalisten Tarmo.

The guest team Kannuksen Ura.

Pesäpallo (Finnish pronunciation: [pesæpɑlːo]; Swedish: boboll, both names literally meaning “nest ball”, also referred to as “Finnish baseball”) is a fast-moving bat-and-ball sport that is often referred to as the national sport of Finland and has some presence in other countries including Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, and Canada’s northern Ontario (the latter two countries have significant Nordic populations). The game is similar to brännboll, rounders, and lapta, as well as baseball.

Pesäpallo is a combination of traditional ball-batting team games and North American baseball. Pesäpallo was invented by Lauri “Tahko” Pihkala in the 1920s. Pesäpallo has changed with the times and…