Baseball Notes | Rule Changes

No major rule changes that will surprise anyone, but it worth nothing what rule changes actually took place. So when you are sitting at the game with some friends and it starts raining in the 5th inning of a tie ball game you can tell them exactly what could happen.

The committee also changed the way tie games will be resolved. Any games stopped with a tie score in the bottom of the fifth inning or later will be suspended rather than replayed.

Suspended games will be completed before the next scheduled game between the two teams at the same location, baseball's rules committee said. If no games are left at that field, the game will be completed at the other team's ballpark.

Only if a game would affect a playoff spot and there are no scheduled meetings left between the two teams would a game be declared a tie and replayed in its entirety.

The other rule change listed involves players who scuff the ball. "A position player who scuffs or defaces a baseball will be ejected and receive an automatic 10-game suspension." If a pitcher is believed to have scuffed the ball the decision on what to do is up to the discretion of the umpire.
That's all the new rule changes, don't look like an idiot in front of your friends the next time it starts raining.

Philadelphia Inquirer | 02/17/2007 | Baseball Notes | Reliever Foulke decides to retire