[PeteBooth]

Originally posted by Carl Childress

The J/R is official for no league that you and I know of.

Papa C I think the issue for at least myself is this:

What happens in the PRO Game when lets say Joe Torre lodges a protest? What's the procedure? Do they go to the book first?, then to coin a lawyers term - case law? (authoritative opinion).

Let's take the infamous Pine-tar incident involving George Brett - what actually happened?

I consider Authoritative opinion tools for learning rules and how to enforce them.

But when push comes to shove are these opinions used in any analysis by lets say the Commissioner of Baseball in determining the validity of a Protest?

I have hardly if ever seen a protest upheld in major league baseball anyway so that point is probably mute at best.

To me the simplist answer is update the rule book

I gather from my time on the internet that you, Jim P, Warren and Bob are avid readers of not only the rules but just about any authoritative opinion out there.

One of my shortcomings is unfortunately I am not. Give me 1 source in which I can go and find the answer. Maybe that's why I became a real FED advocate after umpiring HS for the past 3 years.

You can say what you want about FED, but their rule / case books are for the most part the only source for rule interpretation that one will need.

One other thing is that (and correct me if I'm wrong), the opinions by JR, Evans etc. all deal with the professional athlete, yet most of us umpire the amateur game. Therefore, if we umpire an amateur game shouldn't their be opinions designed specifically for that level? as opposed to the PRO game?

Thanks Papa C

Pete Booth