Improving Baseball’s Deceptive Rule Book

Most have been misled to believe that when an infraction happens during a baseball game that the umpires simply apply the correct ruling, and end of story. Wrong!

In reality there are infractions that take place, let’s say Batter’s Interference for example, where there over twenty (20) different rulings (possibly more or less) that can be called depending on what takes place during and after the infraction. 

An elite group of really, really good umpires know and can correctly apply the majority of all these rules . Too few umpires know and can correctly apply most of these rules. The majority of umpires know and can correctly apply some of these rules.  Umpires are not to blame for this disparaging conundrum, umpires have been challenged, misled and deceived by non-other than, the baseball rule book.

Baseball Rule Books while having been given a near biblical status in the realm of the baseball / umpire world are actually inept at providing the total perspective that is needed to grasp, retain and apply a completely correct ruling. The inept deceptive baseball rule books by not only their words, but by their poor overall format causes the failures and breakdowns when a complicated infraction takes place during a baseball game.

Baseball rule books scatter related rulings regarding an infraction randomly throughout the rule book. In order to locate them, one level of play does not provide page numbers, only rule numbers. At most levels of play finding individual rulings requires going to the back of the book to the index that is in number six font.  The table of contents in the front of the book lists chapter topics to specific actions of the game such as, Pitching, Batting, Baserunning and Umpiring to name a few and all of the hundreds of rulings and penalties that apply are all mixed randomly throughout those chapters. Now go find them and connect them on your own, good luck with that. Yes, I know they even misspell Base Running.

The unique reader friendly format and content in the 2018 College Edition of Baseball Rules in Black in White, which is heavily endorsed by D-I & II umpires and assigners and is registered in the United States Copy Write Office is not deceptive. This book has been designed to be an educational resource that teaches the entire rule of an infraction for each specific level of play. Baseball Rules in Black and White is “A Better Way to Learn and Apply the Rules of Baseball.”