New Britain herald., 1926-04-05
 
CHANCES IN BASEBALL RULES ARE
 IMPORTANT BUT NOT VERY RADICAL

being classified with the regulation game" rule,
 In Section 2, of Rule 2S, about players, there has been no end of confusion among the youngsters as 10 what ''any stage Of the game means when one player was put in the contest for another. Frequently it has been ruled that a player could break down between first base and second. and if another player touched first base and con- tinuod 10 run for the injured player. tho run would count. Of course. that would result in a farce, because slow runners could pretend to break down at first base and faster rum ners could take their places. The rule has been so changed now that q substitution cannot be made while the ball is in play. The umpire al- ways calls time" when substitu- ton is made.
 To Section . of Rule 30 there is appended the rosin bag paragraph " HUI nus bC'okiN luiiouo Illu5 'illS. The National league will use 1t and tho American league will have none of it,
 Tho rule does not say that tho pitcher must dry his hands on the rosin bag. It says he may. There can be q legal rosin bag, and if thero is a league that doesn't want to carry the bag. there is nothing to compel it to do so.
 Note one thing very carefully. use of q foreign substance on the ball has been changed. To dauh or maltrcat the ball is as illegal as ever it was.
 Rules For Pitchers
 The rule in regard to the pitcher throwing to an unoccupicd base has been changed so that If he does it once he is warned, and if he repeats it he is out of the game. This change has been enormously confounded in some way with the intentional pass, but has nothing whatever 10 do with 1t. The change is very proper and q good one. as it prevents needless delay of the game.
 Various slight changes have been made in the bal rule. but none Of them alter the ball or it's penalty. The changes have made the rule much clearer.
 If a batsman stands at the plato and, in the opinion of the umpire, lodges into a slow ball so that he spells either a ball or q strike. tho umpire may put a penalty of a ball or strike on the batsman. Iu tho past if has often been ruled deod with a play at the expense of tho pitcher. Of course, if the batsman is hit accidentally, the rule of hit by pitcher applies as it always did. Intentional Pass The rule about the intentional pass stands as it did. although the mem- bers of the rules committee were quite willing to admit that it is superf1uous and unnecessary. How ever. it had been incorporated into the rules as sort of a precautionary warning to the catcher. and so it was permitted to remain. The words the intentional pass" were stricken from the rule. The leagues do not recognize, or pretend longer to recognize, that there is not such 8 thing as an intentional pass" Mind readers can not play baseball in the capacity of umpires.
 The distance of a home run is 250 feet, and yet the size of q ground does not necessarily have mini- mum limit of 250 feet. A ground may be 235 feet at its least neasure- ment, but home runs will not be legal over that 235-foot wall. That point is flatly settled by increasing the distance of a home run to 250 , feet.
 The umpire, by the change in the rule regarding suspension of play. may call the game at the end of 1 thirty minutes if he wishes to do so. If, in his opinion. he can afford to ! wait five minutes longer, he may; i but on the other hand there is noth- Continued On Following Page)