Quote:
Originally Posted by Manny A
What prompted this rule, I dunno. Perhaps it all came about from the whole "I Won't Cheat" crusade that LL went on when it put those patches on tournament team uniforms, and someone in a position of authority argued that sign stealing was cheating, so it had to be outlawed. Whatever the case, LL felt strong enough to not only have it as an optional rule during regular season play, but to make it a mandatory rule in tournament play. Pretty dumb. We may as well outlaw the stealing of bases as well, since it does involve, well, stealing.
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Throughout all of this, all I can picture is the kid standing at second during the LLWS and waving his arms rather dramatically to indicate to the batter whether the catcher was setting up inside or outside. It was so comical that even the talking heads speculated about how distracting it must have been for the batter. Unfortunately, I can't find a video of it, so it must have happened so long ago that it cannot possibly be the impetus for this rule.