Quirks of the Rulebook

“A crazy game.”

That was the summary by LA pitcher George Sherrill in the aftermath of Tuesday night’s Dodgers-Giants game in which San Francisco pushed the tying and go-ahead runs to the plate in the top of the ninth in a 7-5 win at Dodger Stadium. A rarely invoked rule came into play and likely altered the game and included mistakes made by the Dodgers and the umpiring crew.

Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton was forced from the game with one out, the bases loaded and the Dodgers holding a one-run lead. Dodger hitting coach Don Mattingly, filling in for Joe Torre after he had been ejected in the seventh inning, had gone to the mound to arrange the defense. As he turned to the dugout, Dodgers first baseman James Loney asked one more question about where he should play. By then, Mattingly had stepped off of the dirt area of the mound onto the infield grass. Mattingly stopped and walked back onto the dirt below the mound, giving further instructions to Loney as he went.

Rule 8.06 (d) of the Official Baseball Rules states: a manager or coach is considered to have concluded his visit to the mound when he leaves the 18-foot circle surrounding the pitcher's rubber. When a manager or coach makes a second trip to the mound in an inning the pitcher must be removed.

”No, no, no!” plate umpire Adrian Johnson shouted to Mattingly as he turned around. ”You can’t go back.” As Mattingly proceeded in the boo-boo, Giants manager Bruce Bochy emerged from his dugout pointing and protesting that he (Mattingly) cannot do that. The umpiring crew gathered and discussed the situation and agreed that, indeed, Mattingly could not do that and it would result in Broxton’s removal from the game. Sherrill then gave up a two-run double giving Frisco the lead. It was determined after the game that the umpire had erred, however, in the enforcement of the rule.

Rule 8.06 (d) comes with an official comment in the rulebook: "In a case where a manager has made his first trip to the mound and then returns the second time to the mound in the same inning with the same pitcher in the game and the same batter at bat, after being warned by the umpire that he cannot return to the mound, the manager shall be removed from the game and the pitcher required to pitch to the batter until he is retired or gets on base. After the batter is retired, or becomes a baserunner, then this pitcher must be removed from the game."

Mattingly should have been ejected and Broxton should have been allowed to complete the at-bat before being removed by rule. That didn’t happen. Had the Dodgers protested the game at that point, their protest would have likely been upheld and the game would have to be replayed at a point in the future. That didn’t happen either.

Baseball is a quirky game with obscure rules and rulings, sort of like golf. Amidst the ballyhoo this season over judgment calls made by umpires (recall Jim Joyce and Armando Galarraga’s ruined perfect game) it is important to be clear here that out/safe and ball/strike calls are just a part of the job of an umpire as a game arbiter, the main reason the umpires are there is to make sure the game is played within the rules. When rules violations occur, it is the duty of an umpire to not only know a rule and recognize when it has been bent, but also to know how to enforce the consequences of the rule. Veteran umpire Tim McClelland, umpire-in-chief for this series, and his crew made the more serious error in this instance.

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Many managers and the vast majority of players do not know the rulebook nearly as well as they would prefer to think. It is the job of the umpire to know the rulebook cover to cover down to every detail. Unfortunately even the umpires sometimes misinterpret the rules. That is the sort of mistake that really eats at an ump. They know they will kick a judgment call on occasion (though not nearly as often as most people think) but they have to know the rules and how to enforce them.

Sport officiating is an incredibly thankless job. When an ump gets a call or a ruling right, the TV and radio guys give almost a shrug-off. “Yeah, ok, I guess he got it right.” When an ump boots one, it is fodder for the rest of that game and maybe several days, weeks, or years afterward. The type of man it takes to have the stones to plant two feet behind the catcher and call a game requires a rare combo of keen judgment, split-second timing, steely nerve, and an encyclopedic knowledge of the rules. If it were as easy as fans think, they’d let first four fans that come to the ballpark call the game. How many of you knew Mattingly had violated a rule when he stepped back onto the mound area?

Some are suggesting that Bruce Bochy was a bit classless – Bush League, as they call it in the big leagues – in demanding the rule be invoked. It was not and presumably Giants fan is proclaiming he loves that his skipper knows the rules and how to use them. Donny Baseball – and evidently he is not Donny Rulebook – will need to brush up on the rules as he is the heir apparent to Joe Torre in LA. Bochy used the rules to his advantage and set his team in prime position to win the game.

Every sport has its rules quirks, but baseball has many that pop up from time to time leaving players, managers, announcers, and fans all saying “I never seen that before.”

Baseball is the greatest game ever invented. The nooks and crannies of the rulebook is one of many reasons that make that statement true.

By: Jay Kelley
MLBCenter.com Staff Writer

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