Quote:
Originally posted by Gee
"I don't know of any book rule that says an inning ends after a third out.
Unless the third out of an inning ends with a dead ball, very rare, the ball stays (a)live until the proper pitcher starts his warm ups and at that time play is suspended. G.
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OK, Gee, either you are being exceptionally pendantic, or something is wrong here:
OBR 8.03, which you seem to be familiar with, refers to a pitcher taking his position & warm up pitches "at the beginning of an inning", when play is suspended. So, if that marks the beginning of an inning, the previous inning must have ended, right? And OBR Rule 2.00 defines an inning as that period of time "in which there are three put-outs for each team". Sort of sounds like the inning is OVER when the third out happens, right? If that is not good enough, the PBUC manual contains official interpretation (OK, that's not a "book rule", but come on!) as follows: "An inning or half-inning starts
immediately after the third out is made in the preceeding inning".
Some codes, like FED, LL, etc. are even more explicit, but even the pro version of OBR seems pretty clear. I know, however, there are a lot of 9.01(c) addicts out there who would like to think that there is no "specific rule" which dictates when an inning ends, since nowhere is it written "an inning ends when ..."