Clipping:Clarifying the rule on the fielder holding the ball to tag the runner
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| Date | Sunday, May 13, 1877 |
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| Text | There is something very much like a misunderstanding among the clubs outside the League about one of the amended rules which govern the game this season. The players and managers have read in the papers that the rule concerning touching players with the ball has been changed so as to provide that the ball must be held after the play, but when they look in the League book about it they don’t find any such provision, and they are puzzled. A few words of explanation will set the matter straight. When the section of the rules which governs the point (Sec. 15 of Rule 6 in the 1876 book) was under discussion at the League meeting it was found to have the following provision: ‘Should the fielder, while in the act of touching the base runner, have the ball knocked out of his hand, the player so touched shall be declared out.’ One of the delegates to moved strike out the above words, saying, “That’s all wrong; let us make the baseman hold the ball; if he drops it he is always calling for judgment; and, besides, it gives the umpire too much latitude, and that is what we want to avoid. I move to make the rule so that the player must hold the ball after the play is made.” The motion was carried, and the last part of the section stricken out with the clear intention as noted above; but, curiously enough, not a single manager thought to insert a clause qualifying the rule; they all knew what they wanted, and thought they had got it by striking out the offensive provision. The fact that the rule is understood and observed in the same way by all the League managers who put it in its present shape should convince outside clubs that it is proper to follow their example, albeit their intention is rather vaguely expressed in Sec. 15 of Rule 6 of the new rules. |
| Source | Chicago Tribune |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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