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Baseball Rules
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Baseball Rules & Regulations

All of us know that you can't play the game, if you don't know the rules. Every page of the Official Rules are sole property of Major League Baseball and have been reproduced by Baseball Almanac — without any alteration — and by first obtaining the written permission of the Office of the Commissioner.

"Any Member refusing obedience to his Captain, in the exercise of lawful authority, shall pay a fine of fifty cents." - Knickerbocker Rules
Baseball Rules & Regulations

In Alphabetical Order

Baseball Rule Change Timeline
Baseball Rules Quotes
The Strike Zone : A History of Official Strike Zone Rules
1845 Knickerbocker Rules by Alexander Cartwright
1858 Rules of the Massachusetts Game / Town Ball
Official Baseball Rules & Regulations

Divisions of the Code

10.00 Foreward
11.00 Objectives of the Game
12.00 Definition of Terms
13.00 Game Preliminaries
14.00 Starting and Ending the Game
15.00 Putting the Ball in Play
16.00 The Batter
17.00 The Runner
18.00 The Pitcher
19.00 The Umpire
10.00 The Official Scorer
Baseball Rules & Regulations


Did you know that the official rules of the game have changed almost every single year since 1845 and that you can review the historical timeline for many of the major rules right here on Baseball Almanac?

The balk rule, baseball's least understood, has been in the rule book since the nineteenth century and Major League umpire Ron Luciano once said of it, "I never called a balk in my life. I didn't understand the rule."

The Special Records Committee of 1968 overturned many earlier rules and applied modern standards. An example was the 1887 rule where walks were counted as hits (which has since been restored). Do you agree with their decision to use twentieth century standards or should we leave the historic rules in place as they were? Share your thoughts on such matters on Baseball Fever.

       

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