What Would Life Be Without Rules?

The World Baseball Classic has begun! When I read the stat line for Japan's starter in the opener, Yu Darvish, I instantly remembered why he pitched only 4 innings: the WBC imposed pitch limit. This instantly got me to the Rules and Regulations page for the WBC to check on the specifics. The pitch count rules are pretty straight forward, but some of the other rules are worth mentioning.

My favorite is the extra inning rule that I first saw noticed in the Olympics' rulebook.

For any inning beginning with the 13th inning, the Team at bat shall begin the inning with runners on first and second base. The batter who leads off an inning shall continue to be the batter who would lead off the inning in the absence of this extra-innings rule.

It's like a shootout, baseball-style. I can wait to see this rule in practice. It had been more complicated in the Olympics due to giving the managers the choice of where in the order he wanted to start the extra innings situation. Bonus obscurity for those of you scoring at home:

For purposes of calculating earned runs under the Official Baseball Rule 10.16(b), the runners who begin an inning on first and second base pursuant to this rule each shall be deemed to be runners who have reached first base because of a fielding error, but no error shall be charged to the opposing Team or to any player.

Another thing that caught my eye was the following:

WBCI will not approve a player's participation in the Tournament if such participation would cause a Major League Club to have more than 14 players from its organization...unless the Major League Club informs WBCI in writing that it has no objection to allowing additional players to participate.

If one takes a look at this post on Metsblog.com, the rule actually has a precedent:

According to Newsday, ‘Fernando Tatis has agreed to be the replacement for Alex Rodriguez on the Dominican Republic team for the WBC.’

The Mets now have more players in the World Baseball Classic, 16, than any other team in MLB.

Bit of a curious rule to follow.

When a pitcher warming up in the bullpen has been designated to the umpire-in-chief as a relief pitcher, at the call of the umpire, the pitcher must take a position on the pitching plate promptly. Any extra pitches thrown in the bullpen may be subtracted from the eight permissible from the mound.

So it appears that not only is a relief pitcher permitted eight and only eight warmup pitches on the mound, but if he throws any pitches in the bullpen after being called, they'll dock him. Seems unnecessarily strict.

The succeeding batter must occupy and kneel in the spot designated as the on-deck circle.

I find it hard to believe this rule will be followed or enforced for that matter. Conveniently, no penalty for squatting or standing is listed.

Mascots are not permitted on the field once a game has started, except when the infield is being dragged in the 5th inning or if there is a rain delay. Mascots must leave the field no later than 1 minute and 40 seconds into the fifth inning break to permit the public address announcer to call the first batter of the next half-inning.

Geez. This seems pretty harsh. Though I suspect I won't be able to find out, I'm really curious as to whether mascots are aware of their 1 minute and 40 seconds of fame and if they've prepared a routine accordingly or not.

Finally, my second favorite set of rules set out for the Classic involve replays and the videoboard in general. I'm relatively sure these rules mimic MLB's regulations, but a cursory glance in the Official Rules netted me nothing. There's a lot to be covered here so let's go point by point.

The following plays may not be shown:

• Replays showing balls and strikes (unless the image is from a prior game, and only then if the context of the highlights clearly demonstrates that criticism of umpires or incitement of the crowd is not the purpose of the display);

Touchy, touchy. You never see any highlights from previous games of great plate discipline resulting in ball 4. Why is that?

• Double plays and forceouts originating at second base;

The clear implication here is that the replay would reveal more neighborhood plays than overseers would ever want to deal with.

• Brushback pitches; and

I understand this one - you don't want to incite the crowd, and there's really no substantiative reason for replaying a brushback.

• Any instance where an umpire has clearly made an incorrect call.

Whereas the intent, again, is to avoid inciting the crowd, I disagree with this one. I think paying patrons have a right to know what really happened. If you think about it, the unintentional implication being made is that a close call that isn't shown on the videoscreen must be an errant call.

Exciting plays, such as spectacular catches or players circling the bases after home runs, may be shown more than once, but close plays may be shown only once, and none of the close plays may be shown in slow motion.

Again, anyone who reads this now knows that if a replay is shown only once, and not shown in slow motion, there's a good chance it could've been an errant call. Seems like these kinds of rules don't need to be, or perhaps even shouldn't be revealed to the public.

...No episode or event that would embarrass or denigrate an umpire, Team member, Team official or official scorer may be shown. The likeness of an umpire may not be shown nor may an umpire's name be used in a way to embarrass an umpire.

This one just makes me laugh a little. I've prepared a visual for what I believe were actual videoscreen situations that led to these lines being included in the rules. Enjoy.