Are protest rulings precedents?

[Warren Willson]

Originally posted by DJWickham
Do you know if MLB has ever distributed a copy of a decision or summary of protests to each team and umpire (not just the affected teams and umpire crew)? That is, if they are not collected or distributed, how does umpire crew #2 know the reasoning and result of a protest in a case involving crew #1. Has any league president cited a prior protest ruling as binding on him?

No, Dennis, I don't "know" since the Instructions for MLU's are apparently only issued to them, and in loose leaf form. I would be really surprised to find that these weren't regularly updated with new policy or the results of league decisions, whether arising from protests or otherwise. It is likely that the MLU's instructions are made available to the PBUC, because the NAPBL is represented on the official playing rules committee. I view the loose leaf Instructions to MLU's as at times interim, at others semi-permanent and at still others as permanent e.g. in the case of specific instructions covering a particular MLB ground.

Bottom line, though, is NO I don't "know" any of that for a fact. There may be some conclusions that might be drawn from certain of the professional interpretations appearing in JEA, especially where the history is supporting of a change resulting from reversing or overruling an earlier interpretation, but I haven't sat down and line-by-lined the JEA to find that out either.

Cheers,