Slow work day.
Perusing this week's SI in better detail (between midnight feedings for the Little Dirka), I noticed a small note that MLB has announced some rule changes for 2007. Now MLB changes the rules that govern the sport only slightly more frequently than Catholics pick a new Pope, so this is news. Let's delve a little further into the changes:
1. Tie game no longer forces a do-over. I guess this is a good rule; if the teams are tied 5-5 in the seventh, and AP has hit 3 HR's on the afternoon, the game will continue the next time weather allows, instead of starting over from scratch and wiping out all those statistics. A victory for stat hounds everywhere! Can this rule be retroactively applied to make stats from all those washed out games in last century count? No, guess not.
2. The Derek Jeter Rule. You can't go into the stands anymore for a foul ball? Is this move designed to protect the players or the fans? You also can't go into the dugout anymore? Don't we reward extra effort in this country? (I think the dugout caveat to the new rule is overkill; with protective fences in place around all dugouts (except Fenway, I think), players don't go in there very much anymore anyway.)
3. The Kenny Rogers Rule. No more warnings if the baseball you pitched is found to be damaged or scuffed. Think they found evidence of tampering on balls during Game 2 of the World Series? I think so. Too bad this rule didn't include 'automatic 10 game suspension if you don't wash your hands'.
7 minutes ago
7 comments:
I love the first rule, hate the second, and am so-so with the third. 10-game suspension would be good for the third, especially since you're giving the ball a performance enhancer. Thanks for breaking that all down ...
the derek jeter rule needs to be renamed the Pokey Reese Rule. how long will it be before people recognize that Pokey made a better catch in the stands than Jeter did during that same game a few years back.
Actually, if it was 5-5 in the 7th and the rains came, all of the stats would count, but there'd be a do-over. That's why some players have 163 games played, because of a tie game rain out.
If it was 5-5 in the 4th, then in the past none of the stats would count. I think I remember back in my youth a player for Cleveland lose his only major league homer that way.
I don't think it is a Jeter rule; more along the lines of a Gary Sheffield rule a la his Fenway grab when he was 'assaulted' in the right field stands. MLB loves playing clips of the Jeter grab in its' commercials.
Nobody cares about Pokey Reese.
Sheffield didn't go into the stands, only his glove. Jeter went full steam into the stands at Yankee Stadium, which is what I interpreted this rule as trying to prevent.
And don't forget Ryan Freel clocking some old lady in the head a couple years back.
Thanks for this blog postt
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