Virtually unnoticed (using the time-honored practice of sending out a press release late on Friday afternoon), the MLB Rules Committee has made some significant changes in baseball rules and how games are scored.
Highlights include:
- Any tie game halted due to weather, or any other reason, such as a power failure, after it's official (five innings, or four and a half if the home team is ahead), will automatically become a suspended game. This will eliminate things like the Typhoon Game, played at Wrigley Field in 2003 (although that one never made it to five innings, given the new rule, they'd probably have tried to get one more inning in), and likely virtually eliminate tie games. In practice, it may create situations where, if there's really bad weather in the fourth inning of a game that some team is trailing badly, they'd start stalling in hopes that the umpires will call it before it's official.
- Any pitcher caught defacing the ball faces immediate ejection and an automatic ten-game suspension.
- Players can no longer step into dugouts to catch foul balls -- they can reach in, but not step in.
- The 20-second time limit for a pitcher to pitch with no one on base has been reduced to 12 seconds. This is almost never enforced; I assume it's being done to speed up the game, but without an actual clock (which I am NOT in favor of), I can't see how this will ever be put into practice.
- Pitchers can wear multicolored gloves (except gray or white) unless they are, in the umpire's judgment, "distracting". I can see Tony LaRussa bitching already.
There's more;
click here for details. (link opens .pdf file) There have also been significant changes
for official scorers. (link opens .pdf file)
FWIW, the committee making these changes is comprised of:
Chief Executive Officer of the San Diego Padres, Sandy Alderson, who serves as Chair of the Committee; Bob Beban, the President and General Manager of the Eugene Emeralds of the Northwest League; Hall of Famer Rod Carew, a 19-year Major League veteran; John McHale, Jr., MLB's Executive Vice President of Administration; Terry Ryan, the Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Minnesota Twins; John Schuerholz, the Executive Vice President and General Manager of the Atlanta Braves; Jimmie Lee Solomon, MLB's Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations; Bill Stoneman, the Vice President and General Manager of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim; and Umpire Larry Young, who has over 22 years of experience at the Major League level.
One clarification.
Al, you may want to clarify that it is only tied official games that will be treated as a suspended game, not all rainouts or other games that are stopped. A team who leads after 5 or more innings in a rainout still wins, for instance. Your entry implied that, but could be a little confusing, or at least it was to me until I went to the MLB page.John in Indy - February 18, 2007
I think you just misread it...
Al's post reads "Any tie game halted...after it's official"HanOfTheBluegrass - February 19, 2007
Crap...
I gotta read the other comments before commenting...Maybe if Al had responded to your comment...
;)
HanOfTheBluegrass - February 19, 2007
I did, but...
... below. See it?Al Yellon - February 19, 2007
I meant directly to it...
Whenever someone replies to a comment as a reply to the main post, I always miss it.HanOfTheBluegrass - February 20, 2007
Changed.
Better?Al Yellon - February 18, 2007
Yeah
Seemed clear to mejshafer - February 18, 2007
I am gonna miss players diving in dugouts
It was dangerous but fun to watch. Next they will eliminateplayers diving into the stands.
jessica - February 18, 2007
This will...
... make foul popups near dugouts drop more often. If players can't step into dugouts to catch them, they won't risk reaching in lest they fall and hurt themselves. Instead, they'll wind up letting some of the balls go.Al Yellon - February 18, 2007
Weird
In the official scoring rules changes:Saves -- Added requirement that relief pitcher must be credited with at least 1/3 of an inning pitched.
Before this modification, this was possible?
I can't think of any valid scenario. Anybody?
roscoevillage - February 18, 2007
I wondered about that too.
But I think they are simply putting in writing something that was obvious.Al Yellon - February 19, 2007
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