An anecdotal look at the rules of baseball and how they came to be
by David Nemec.
Would you like to know not only about the current rules but how they came about? This is the book for you.
Baseball's rules, in their "official" version, read like a tax regulation manual--and are nearly as unintelligible. Nemec, a noted baseball historian, provides an annotated version of the official rules in which he not only explains them in plain English, but also provides an example of each and an explanation of its origins. For example, most fans are familiar with the rule requiring a runner to "tag up" on a fly ball before advancing. Today the rule says a runner can advance after the ball touches a fielder; at one time, the ball had to be secured by the fielder, which led outfielders to develop their juggling skills. This is an official publication of major-league baseball and is being released in conjunction with the game's one-hundred-twenty-fifth anniversary.
