The Official Rules of Baseball Illustrated

by David Nemec

  3.03 (i)

  No player shall attach anything to the heel or toe of his shoe other than the ordinary shoe plate or toe plate. Shoes with pointed spikes similar to golf or track shoes shall not be worn.

  In the early days it was recommended but not mandatory that a player wear spikes attached to his shoes. Interestingly, most players then wore shoes of the same high-top design that is now the rage in baseball gear. Later all clubs made wearing spikes mandatory. The last player on record to be fined for not wearing spikes on his shoes was Pete Browning when he was with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1891. Browning hated to slide and lived in fear of having his spikes catch when he did so. He nonetheless stole his share of bases.

  Players have never been permitted to wear golf or track spikes for obvious reasons: No second baseman or shortstop would ever have stood in to take a throw at the keystone sack on a steal attempt if a Ty Cobb or a Rickey Henderson had come into the bag with track spikes flying.

  During the 1976 season, several players—including Dan Ford of the Minnesota Twins and Matt Alexander of the Oakland As—briefly wore spikes similar to those on golf shoes before a rival manager spotted the violation and protested to umpires, forcing the offending players to change to shoes with regulation spikes.

  3.03 (j)

  No part of the uniform shall include patches or designs relating to commercial advertisements.

  Without the comparatively recent addition of this rule addendum, one can readily imagine that the uniform jerseys of some of today’s players would resemble the uniform blouses of five-star generals. Rule 3.09 similarly applies to all playing equipment including gloves, bats, the bases, the pitching rubber, and both the pitcher’s toe plate and home plate.

  3.04 Catcher’s Mitt

  The catcher may wear a leather mitt not more than 38 inches in circumference, nor more than 15½ inches from top to bottom. Such limits shall include all lacing and any leather band or facing attached to the outer edge of the mitt. The space between the thumb section and the finger section of the mitt shall not exceed six inches at the top of the mitt and four inches at the base of the thumb crotch. The web shall measure not more than seven inches across the top or more than six inches from its top to the base of the thumb crotch . . .

  In a sense, it was Hoyt Wilhelm—and other knuckleballers of his ilk—who generated a rule limiting the size of a catcher’s mitt. To help Gus Triandos and his other catchers handle Wilhelm while he was with the Orioles from 1958 to 1962, Baltimore manager Paul Richards had an elephantine mitt constructed that resembled the gigantic mockery of the catcher’s mitt that Al Schacht, the Clown Prince of baseball during the 1920s and 1930s, utilized in his comedy act. Even with the oversized mitt, Triandos still set all sorts of modern records for passed balls. On May 4, 1960, he became the first backstop in American League history to let three pitches get by him in a single inning. Less than a week later, Triandos’s backup receiver with the Orioles, Joe Ginsberg, tied his record. In 1962, another Baltimore catcher, Charlie Lau, fell victim three times in a single inning to the butterfly pitch.

  After the 1964 season, the rules committee limited the size of a catcher’s mitt—not that the lack of a restriction had ever seemed to offer much help to Triandos and the other receivers who had to cope with Wilhelm. In 1965, the first year the new rule was in effect, Wilhelm, by then with the White Sox, contributed heavily to the 33 passed balls Sox catcher J. C. Martin committed to set a post-1900 major-league season record. But Martin is only tied for 221st on the all-time list. In the nineteenth century, until the pitching distance was increased in 1893, the 1891 season was the only one in which no catcher had at least 50 passed balls.

  3.05: First Baseman’s Glove

  The first baseman may wear a leather glove or mitt not more than thirteen inches long from top to bottom and not more than eight inches wide across the palm, measured from the base of the thumb crotch to the outer edge of the mitt. The space between the thumb section and the finger section of the mitt shall not exceed four inches at the top of the mitt and three and one-half inches at the base of the thumb crotch. The mitt shall be constructed so that this space is permanently fixed and cannot be enlarged, extended, widened, or deepened by the use of any materials or process whatsoever. The web of the mitt shall measure not more than five inches from its top to the base of the thumb crotch . . .

  The 1895 season was the first that addressed gloves. As late as 1938, first basemen could still use a glove of any size or shape they wished. Detroit first baseman Hank Greenberg brought this custom to a halt when he concocted a glove with a web that looked like a fishing net. Prior to the 1939 season, a rule was inserted that a first baseman’s glove could no longer be more than 12 inches from top to bottom and no more than eight inches across the palm and connected by leather lacing of no more than four inches from thumb to palm. The “Trapper” model, which first appeared in 1941 and quickly became the standard glove for the first base position, was circumspectly designed to conform to the new rule.

  Michael “Doc” Kennedy was the last known professional player other than a pitcher to play barehanded. He began his career as a catcher with a Memphis club in 1876, spent a short time in the majors, and finished in 1901 at age forty-seven as a gloveless minor-league first baseman with Buffalo of the Eastern League, although he may have worn a glove that season in the few games he caught.

  3.06 Fielding Gloves

  Each fielder, other than the catcher, may use or wear a leather glove. The measurements covering size of glove shall be made by measuring front side or ball receiving side of glove. The tool or measuring tape shall be placed to contact the surface or feature of item being measured and follow all contours in the process. The glove shall not measure more than 13 inches from the tip of any one of the four fingers, through the ball pocket to the bottom edge or heel of glove. The glove shall not measure more than 7¾ inches wide, measured from the inside seam at base of first finger, along base of other fingers, to the outside edge of little finger edge of glove. The space or area between the thumb and first finger, called crotch, may be filled with leather webbing or back stop . . .

  Prior to 1895, the rules said nothing about the size and shape of fielders’ gloves for the simple reason that for many years no self-respecting player would stoop to wearing a glove in the field. By the mid-1870s many catchers had begun using protective mittens while behind the bat and a few players, such as Al Spalding, also sported gloves that were employed more to protect their hands than to aid in catching the ball. However, gloves did not become a standard item of equipment until the late 1880s—even then a number of players disdained fielding a ball with anything but their bare flesh. The last two bare-handed major leaguers of note were second baseman Bid McPhee and third sacker Jerry Denny. Both balked at the notion of using a glove until the 1890s. Indeed, McPhee did not first wear a glove in the field until April 18, 1895, in an Opening Day game against the Cleveland Spiders.

  Bid McPhee, the best second baseman in Cincinnati Reds history prior to Joe Morgan and the last documented major leaguer to play without a glove. Largely because he spent a significant portion of his career in the rebel American Association, McPhee was forced to wait until 2000 before being selected for the Hall of Fame.

  Meanwhile, other players had long since recognized the advantages a glove could provide. When some began designing contraptions the size of manhole covers, a rule was devised in 1895 limiting fielders to gloves that could not be over 10 ounces in weight or more than 14 inches in circumference around the palm of the hand. Catchers and first basemen were exempted from any restrictions on the size or weight of their gloves, but were made to switch to a smaller glove if they played another position. For years afterward, however, it was still common practice for a former catcher like Lave Cross to use a modified catcher’s mitt to play the infield—especially third base—as long as his mitt did not exceed the proscribed 10-ounce weight and 14 inches in circumference.

  3.08: Helmets<
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  A Professional League shall adopt the following rule pertaining to the use of helmets:

  Of the six appendices regarding helmet requirements and usage, several were long overdue when they were added—tragically long overdue. Among them is 3.08 (e) requiring all base coaches to wear protective helmets. It followed the stunning death of Tulsa Drillers first-base coach Mike Coolbaugh on July 22, 2007, after being struck while in his coach’s box by a line drive off the bat of Drillers catcher Tino Sanchez in the ninth inning of a Texas League game against the Arkansas Travelers. Sanchez’s blow struck Coolbaugh in the neck and destroyed his left vertabral artery, causing so severe a brain hemorrhage that he was virtually killed on impact. It is uncertain that even a standard protective helmet would have served as an adequate preventative measure in this instance.

  The 1971 season was the first when it became mandatory for batters to wear protective helmets, but most had adopted them long before then. In 1941, the Brooklyn Dodgers became the first team to wear plastic headguards after Pete Reiser, Joe Medwick, and several of the team’s other stars were beaned. By 1957, the American League had recognized the need for protective headgear and made it obligatory. Batters had the option, though, of using plastic wafers in their caps, which offered less protection than a helmet—particularly one with ear flaps—but were more comfortable. The 1971 rule contained a codicil that permitted veteran players who preferred plastic wafers to helmets to use wafers for the remainder of their careers. Former catcher Bob Montgomery (1970–79) was among those who declined to wear a helmet, and has claimed that he was the last to bat in a major-league game without one.

  Game photos from the 1960s reflect that some batters began wearing helmets on the bases even before the mandatory rule to wear them while batting was instigated. But curiously, the mandatory rule to wear them on the bases was not adopted until 2010.

  3.10: Equipment On The Field

  (a) Members of the offensive team shall carry all gloves and other equipment off the field and to the dugout while their team is at bat. No equipment shall be left lying on the field, either in fair or foul territory.

  Only someone under the age of seventy could ask if there is any truth to the tale that players in the old days were permitted to leave their gloves on the playing field while their team was at bat. But then many who are not yet senior citizens might consider 1953 the old days. That was the final season in which players on all levels could leave their gloves in the field when they came in to bat. The last players permitted to do so were the eight members of the New York Yankees who discarded them before they came to bat in the bottom of the ninth inning in Game Six of the 1953 World Series. The game at that point was tied 3–3, and saw the Yankees score the run that gave them the game, 4–3, and clinched the Series over Brooklyn, four games to two. Among the eight were seven of the usual suspects on the 1953 Yankees such as Mickey Mantle, Phil Rizzuto, and Gil McDougald, plus the one name that is guaranteed to win you a bar bet against even the most rabid Yankees’ fan you are likely to meet in your lifetime: first baseman Don Bollweg.

  The popular custom was for outfielders to deposit their gloves near their positions, infielders to spread theirs around the edge of the outfield grass, pitchers to disgard theirs in foul territory, and catchers to haul their fielding tools into the dugout. Many players also left their sunglasses in the field, folded inside their gloves.

  A thrown or batted ball that struck a glove left on the field was in play, and if a fielder tripped on a glove while chasing a hit, it was considered an occupational hazard. Everyone wondered how an umpire would rule if a fielder, while diving for a line drive, caught it with an opponent’s glove after somehow getting his bare hand entangled in it. But this unlikely event never happened (at least to our knowledge). What often did happen was that teammates or opponents of squeamish players would tuck rubber snakes and such in their gloves while they were left unattended and then wait for their owners to shriek when the repellent discovery was made.

  Probably no one alive today ever witnessed a major-league game in which a batted ball or a player was affected by a glove lying on the field. Some fifty years earlier, however, on September 28, 1905, in a game that was instrumental in deciding the American League pennant, the Philadelphia A’s edged the Chicago White Sox, 3–2, when Topsy Hartsel scored the winning run from second base after Harry Davis’s single to short left field struck Hartsel’s glove, which he had left on the outfield grass when he came in to bat.

  Rule 3.10 (originally Rule 3.14) was implemented in part for general safety, as by the mid-1950s improvements in design had created gloves with deeper pockets and fortified with webbing so intricate as to be a potential menace to fielders. No actual incidents were cited for this sudden change. After the new rule was adopted, some players, out of habit, continued to leave their gloves on the field until an umpire admonished them. Once in a while, before a glove was ordered removed, it would be allowed to remain on the field for a time, perhaps as a lorn reminder of a vestigial custom of the game whose passing most did not even know to mourn until long after the fact.

  3.10 (b)

  The use of any markers on the field that create a tangible reference system on the field is prohibited.

  This rule was devised prior to the 2017 season after the New York Mets challenged the Dodgers’ use of a laser system to aid in positioning their outfielders in a game at the Mets’ Citi Field. The Dodgers argued that they had routinely made physical markings in the Dodger Stadium outfield and had offered opposing teams the same courtesy. Mets manager Terry Collins complained, “You just don’t go paint somebody else’s field.” Note that the new rule bans the use of physical markings but does not explicitly ban the use of lasers.

  The illegal use of electronic devices in baseball suddenly became front-page news in January 2020 when the Houston Astros were punished for using a video camera positioned in center field of their home park during the 2017 season—their lone championship to date—to steal catchers’ signs. Team personnel, led by skipper A. J. Hinch and bench coach Alex Cora, watched the feed in a hallway between the clubhouse and dugout and then relayed what kind of pitch was coming by hitting a trash can with a bat. Houston’s proscribed use of electronics to steal catchers’ signs, though suspected, was not exposed in all its glory until former Astros hurler Mike Fiers told his Oakland teammates about it in 2019.

  The investigation into the charge resulted in the Astros being heavily fined and stripped of their first- and second-round draft choices in 2020 and 2021. In addition, Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow and manager A. J. Hinch were suspended from baseball for a year and later fired by the club. Cora was also suspended for a year, and then bounced from his managerial post with the Red Sox; while Carlos Beltran, a key member of the 2017 Astros’ sign-stealing crew who retired after the season and had signed to manage the Mets in 2020, agreed with the club to part ways soon after the scandal broke. No active players were penalized because investigators and the MLB Players Association struck a bargain early in the process that granted immunity in exchange for honest testimony. It was widely believed that MLB was quick to make such a generous offer largely because it did not think it could win subsequent grievances with any players it attempted to discipline.

  Whether the Astros profited significantly from their crime against the game is debatable. In both 2017 and 2018, their offensive numbers and won-lost records were better on the road than at home. Although they did better at home than on the road in 2019, the club dropped the seven-game World Series to the Washington Nationals after losing all four in their home park while winning each of their three road games by lopsided margins.

  Sign stealing in baseball is as old as the first team to be detected giving its players “secret” signals. It is perfectly legal—except when it utilizes systems or techniques that MLB has formally banned. Few pundits imagine the Astros have been alone in recent years in working to gain an illegal edge, just as few believe that none of the curre
nt plaque owners in the Hall of Fame used PEDs. Rogers Hornsby once acknowledged that he’d cheated, or somebody on his team had cheated in almost every single game he’d been in, and other great players have made similar admissions. So, then, why were the Astros dealt with so harshly? One school of thought is the dark cloud that currently looms over their entire organization first started forming in the early 2010s when they were believed to be tanking year after year to gather top draft picks and accrue added money to spend on signing amateur free agents who were not part of the draft. True or not, they are at present the face of modern technology’s advantageous usage in sports at its worst.

  4.00: Game Preliminaries

  4.01 Umpire Duties

  Before the game begins the umpire shall:

  (a) Require strict observance of all rules governing implements of play and equipment of players;

  (b) Be sure that all playing lines (heavy lines on Appendices No. 1 and No.2) are marked with lime, chalk or other white material easily distinguishable from the ground or grass;

  (c) Receive from the home club a supply of regulation baseballs, the number and make to be certified to the home club by the League President. The umpire shall inspect the baseballs and ensure they are regulation baseballs and that they are properly rubbed so that the gloss is removed. The umpire shall be the sole judge of the fitness of the balls to be used in the game;