Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-05-23
HERE IS CORRECT
DOPE ON CHANGES
IN DIAMOND CODE
Much Uncertainty Regarding
New Rules Due to Careless
ness in Revision.
by I. e. SANRQRN.

Chicago, May 22-From the contents
of queries received and from other di-
rect sources is is apparent that In spite
of, or perhaps because of, the revisons
made in the baseball rules last winter
considerable perplexity still exists in the
minds of semi-pro and sand lot players
and umpires.
Some of the haziness is due to the
fact it is impossible to get an idea
through a few skulls without the aid
of dynamite or acetylene gas. some of
1t is due to faults in the rules them
selves, and lot is the result of failure
to read the code.
When Wild Pitch Hits Bat.
giving nonprofessionals trouble is that
concerning wild pitch which accident
ally hits a batsman's bat while he is in
the act of lodging. In drafting the rule
it was necessary to leave lot to the
umpire's Judgment and Interpretation.
otherwise it would have required a page
or two of instructions and diagrams to
make the purpose of the rule clear.
The new rule operates only when
in the umpires judgment the ball is
pitched so wildly that the batsman is
unable to get both himself and his bat
ont of the way. A great many think
the rule is intended to apply in cases
where a batter starts to swing at a
ball, changes his mind at the last min
ute and does not get his bat out of the
way in time to avoid contact
Frequent In Big Leagues.
That happens quite often in the
major leagues, at least, but it is not
batsman from that kind of careless
ness by awarding him ball" in
such cases. In those instances the bat
ter is penaliZed with a strike-unless
he already has had two-or he can
be thrown out if the ball rebounds fair.
1t is just the same as II used to be.
OF course, it is matter of interpre-
tation by the umpires. and it is possi-
BILE for the officials and umpires of any
minor, semi-pro, or amateur league to
get together and agree to interpret the
rule so that any time the ball hits the
bat accidentally il shall be called a ball.
But the foregoing is the way the rule
is interpreted by the major league um
pires, and all decisions regarding base
ball rules made by The Tribune are as
they would be made by a National or
American league umpire. Where the
two major leagues conflict in interpret
ing the rules. the National league svs-
tenn is given, unless otherwise requested.
May Not Touch Runner.
There's another rule that bothers the
amateurs a lot--the one penalizing. a
coacher at third base for attempting to
help a base runner BY physical contact.
coacher from slapping on the back a
batsman who has hit the ball over the
fence for a home run. The penalty is
intended to apply only when the coacher
interferes with a possible play that
might result in retiring that base runner
The safe and sane way to avoid all
dispute is TO refrain from patting a sue
cessful runner or batsman on the back
until he has scored. but there would be
no penalty attached unless there was n
chance for a play on the runner either
at third or home plate. In such cases
the coacher must not touch the runner
No Hit on a Force Out.
The purchase and perusal OF a rule
book would save some fans the cost of
the book in postage stamps. For in
stance. a recent official scorer got into
an argument over this play:
Runner on first. batsmau hit a Texas
League fly which fell safely back of the
infield. but the fielder threw the ball
to second in time to force out the man
on first. VINO was SLOW or Donehcad
runner. 1t was argued the batsman
ought not to be deprived of his bast hit
because of the fault of the base runner.
That's all right, but it doesn't pre-
vail in the face Of the clear and concise
paragraph in the rule book which saws
that in no case shall q base hit be
scored when a base runner is forced
out on the play
There is lot of interesting infor
nation in a baseball rule book, but it
requires concentrated thought to alb