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Old Mon Mar 01, 2004, 06:53pm
IRISHMAFIA IRISHMAFIA is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2000
Location: USA
Posts: 14,565
Quote:
Originally posted by greymule
Beware of taking the rule book literally, Buddha, and don't expect crystal-clear writing.

If you want to see a classic example of ASA ambiguity, check out the post labeled "What is ASA referring to?" which deals with a sentence added to the rule book this year. The sentence contains two errors in syntax, one punctuation error, and one minor error in parallelism. (Amazingly, it does not contain a grammatical error.)

I would recommend the ASA casebook. It isn't written any better, but it does cover many specific examples that might be hard to determine strictly from the rule book. ASA doesn't advertise it, but it is available if you call them.
I completely disagree. An umpire shouldn't even consider a case book until they are finished their first year of umpiring. I have seen too many attempt to use it as a short cut and that presents more questions than answers.

As far as ASA's rulebook is concerned, it is one of the easiest to read and comprehend. The order in which it is organized is sensible and relative to the game itself.

As far as any errors, it is written for people to read. Many of the people in this country would strain to comprehend many of the rules if presented in 100% error-free.

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