Page:Spalding's Baseball Guide (1894).djvu/156

 EXPLANATORY APPENDIX.

The new code of rules for 1894 requires but a page or two of explanation, as the changes made which were of any special importance, were few and far between. The diagram of the diamond field needs a surveyor to lay it out so that it might be made comprehensible to amateurs and novices in the game. What with its "arcs" and its "radiuses" and its algebraic style of description, it is likely to be a Greek puzzle to foreign votaries of the game.

The only important changes made are the penalizing of bunted foul balls by calling them strikes; the preventing of a double play when a runner has secured first base, and the succeeding batsman pops up an infield fly ball; the calling of a strike on every pitched ball which hits the batsman after he has struck at it and missed it, and the limiting of sacrifice hits to those made on balls sent to the infield only. The other changes are so-called improved wording of some of the rules. The failures in improving the code include that of refusing to give team-work batsmen the credit due them for forwarding runners by base hits; the not enlarging the pitcher's box so as to admit of his getting a good foot hold within the box, and not as now outside of it and outside of the front line of the pitcher's position, and the refusal to define runs earned off the pitching as runs scored from base hits only, and not from a combination of base hits and stolen bases, thereby charging the pitcher with runs earned off his pitching, which were partly earned off the fielding.

The amended rule relative to sacrifice hits is as follows: Rule 70—new—Section 4, reads as follows: "In the fourth column (of the tabulated score) shall be placed sacrifice hits which shall be credited to the batsman, who, when no one is out, or when but one man is out, advances a runner a base by a bunt sacrifice hit which results in putting out the batsman, or would so result if the ball be handled without error."

Every sacrifice hit resulting from a hit to the infield—but not from a fly ball to the out field—is rewarded by the batsman not being charged, in such case, with a time at the bat. This is described in the amended Rule 68. This is about all of the important changes made in the rules. Some are improvements, but much in that way has been left undone.