THE RULES AND LORE OF BASEBALL

by Rich Marazzi ‧ RELEASE DATE: July 21, 1980

A clever notion, this--to list organized baseball's official rules, from Section 1.00, ""Objectives of the Game,"" through Section 10.00, ""The Official Scorer,"" and demonstrate how each one has been observed or violated in actual play. Thus, Hank Aaron lost a home run when he ran up to hit a blooper pitch from Curt Simmons out of Sportsman Park in violation of rule 6.03, which states: ""The batter's legal position shall be with both feet within the batter's box."" Further, Bad Henry was declared out by Chris Pelakoudas, the plate umpire in the 1965 contest, for having made contact with the ball; had he missed, Aaron could have continued to take his cuts. In another oddity, an ump in a 1956 Texas League game called the batter out when an opposing outfielder grabbed his line drive after it struck a wayward bird. This time the man in blue erred since the ball, having felled the luckless creature, was no longer legally ""in flight."" Accordingly, it could not be legally caught; in fact, the ball was in play and the batter was free to go for as many bases as he could. In addition to discussing thousand-to-one shots of this sort, Marazzi serves up a few for trivia buffs--e.g., the Cleveland Indians have been involved in all five of the unassisted triple plays made in American League history, including three times as the victimized club. Even knowledgeable fans of the summer game will have a field day with this tight assemblage of fresh anecdotes and sharp commentary.

Pub Date: July 21, 1980

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Stein & Day

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 1980

Categories: NONFICTION