Rule 1.01

[gridlore]

Official Rules of Baseball:
1.00 Objectives of the Game

1.01 Baseball is a game between two teams of nine players each, under direction of a manager, played on an enclosed field in accordance with these rules, under jurisdiction of one or more umpires.

Today, Rule 1.01 made a brief reappearance in the heretical American League.

Lineup card error forces Rays' pitcher to hit

An error on the Tampa Bay Rays' official lineup card forced starting pitcher Andy Sonnanstine to bat in Sunday's game against Cleveland. The Rays listed Ben Zobrist and Evan Longoria as the third baseman on the card given to the umpires before the start of the game. Longoria was supposed to be the designated hitter. "Designated hitter has to be designated on the lineup card and he wasn't," umpire crew chief Tim McClelland said. "That was just a mis-write, so to speak. That's how we interpreted it."

Rays manager Joe Maddon, after Tampa Bay beat Cleveland 7-5, said he didn't notice the error when he signed the card and took the blame. After going hitless in his first two at-bats, Sonnanstine had an RBI double to left during a five-run fourth that put Tampa Bay ahead 7-3.

Baseball is a game of skill. Two of these skills are hitting and running the bases. Playing defense is another skill. If you want a game of specialists, stick to football. I strongly support getting rid of the Designated Hitter, day World Series games, and an end to interleague play.

Comments

[bunyip.livejournal.com]

I agree on the getting rid of the DH & interleague play. I have to disagree on the day World Series games because I want the Cubs home World Series games to have a possibility of occuring during the day.

[taschoene.livejournal.com]

I think Doug meant that he strongly supports day World Series games. (Took me a second pass to parse that correctly too.)

I say "hear, hear" to day Series games, at least on weekends. If we can have televised golf during the day, why not baseball?

[bunyip.livejournal.com]

yeah, now that I reread it, I see that.

[lostwanderfound.livejournal.com]

Also agreed on the DH rule, even though I almost never see a game of baseball.

One of the great joys of cricket is watching a completely incompetent number 11 batsman (ie: a specialist bowler) desperately attempting to scrape out the last few runs needed to win a close game. Sure, most of the time they fail, but when they succeed it's magic...

[bunyip.livejournal.com]

I miss being able to watch cricket. ;)

[murphymom.livejournal.com]

For a split second, I read that as "...Rays listed...EVA Longoria..." Now *that* woulda been an interesting line-up.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Agreed on the DH -- and thanks for quoting the story; I'd heard in on the Giants post-game show, but hadn't looked up the details. I'm ambivalent about inter-league play; I'm not sure it's adding as much interest to the game as was claimed when it started. Day World Series games are unlikely to ever happen for financial reasons, of course.

I also know the counter-arguments for the DH, including how every level of play above Little League uses it, for which I say, "Get rid of it at those levels, too!"

[jilesa.livejournal.com]

I absolutely agree with getting rid of the DH and interleague play-- One League to Rule Them All! I'm agnostic on daytime WS games. Once the Nats and Cubs are out of the running, I don't so much care about watching the playoffs and the Series, and the likelihood of either of them being a serious contender for the Series in any given year is... ummm... slim. :)

I was vastly amused by the story of the poor AL pitcher having to hit, though. :)

[pauldrye.livejournal.com]

In what way is a pitcher not a specialist? MLB teams stopped caring if he could do anything other than pitch 'round about Teddy Roosevelt.

[lysana.livejournal.com]

THIS. Pitchers can barely manage .200 averages and still get kept if they pitch well.

[jovianconsensus.livejournal.com]

Listening to NL fans complain about the DH rule is an integral part of the culture of baseball. I'd hate to lose that.

(Hi! I'm the person who wrote an anonymous post saying exactly the same thing. I don't know why I was logged out.)

[netquiddler.livejournal.com]

Absolutely there shouldn't be a DH. Baseball is a game between two teams of nine players each. As it is, right now the DH is used at every level except the National League, the Central League in Japan, and the occasional AA or AAA game (where both teams are NL affiliates). Worse yet is the travesty of the DH rule in high school - you can DH for anyone, not just the pitcher.