The Rules of Baseball the Rules of Baseball: An Anecdotal Look at the Rules of Baseball and How They Camean Anecdotal Look at the Rules of Baseball an

Nemec has written an amusing and useful examination of Major League Baseball's official rule book that is part historical documentation, part expert explanation and part anecdotal entertainment. Taking each section of the rulebook, he relates the historical beginnings and reasoning behind the rule in question, expanding on its application by relating instructive and often amusing real game situations. Particularly fascinating in his account are the peculiarly late development of rules we take for granted today: well into the 1930s ball clubs were startlingly aggressive in forcing fans to return balls hit into the stands and ceased the dubious and stingy practice only after a fan, violently set upon by ushers to retrieve a foul ball, sued the N.Y. Yankees in 1937; equally surprising is that the custom of the hometeam batting was merely a tradition, only becoming a rule in 1950. Baseball logic, as expressed by the rulebook, is always strangely entertaining (when a batter hits out of turn, it's the improperly replaced hitter who is declared out); as well as the many rules that umpires almost universally ignore: although allowed, umpires almost never stop a play in progress if a player is injured, often creating scarily comic incidents on the field; and despite rule 3.06, uniformed players (Ricky Henderson for instance) happily and blatantly schmooze with spectators and opposing players before and during games. (Apr.)