Anyone know who's now publishing Official Baseball Rules?
 

For years The Sporting News has published Official Baseball Rules, and we were fortunate to obtain the rule books at an association rate of 50% off the retail price, which was a big help when many are ordered at once. However, my contact at The Sporting News recently told me they are no longer publishing the book. When I asked him who was, he told me he had no idea and that no one there knew anything.

I've searched around but so far have had no luck. Does anyone know who is the official publisher now? With all the changes in OBR this year, it'd be nice for those of our guys who want this in the typical handy book format to be able to get it.

Ump25,

As far as I know, the only one publishing them this year is the National Baseball Congress. You can find ordering info at the link below.

http://www.nbcbaseball.com/index.cfm?NavID=1&SubNavID=0

Of course, they are also available online at the MLB.com website.

JM

Yeah, I know they're available online, but that's not in a single, downloadable format, like a .pdf or something. One has to print each section at a time. Furthermore, it's much less costly to obtain books and give them to guys than to print out dozens of copies of letter-size documents via the MLB web site. That can get very difficult.

BTW, I wonder if the NBC's publication includes the many changes.

MLB has said it will publish the rulebook itself this sometime this season and in future years. Both The Sporting News and Triumph have announced they will no longer publish a rulebook.

I got a copy of the 2007 Rules at Barnes and Noble. Publisher is Triumph Books. This may be the last year for Triumph. You might also get them from the Leagues, such as Pony, Babe Ruth, etc.

http://www.pony.org/files/home/PONY%...DER%20FORM.pdf

I saw that Triumph's copy is something like ten bucks. Whoa. A bit pricey if you ask me, and no noticeable bulk discounts it would seem.

However, it DOES have my favorite White Sox player on the front. :D

It does, indeed, have Paulie. We have one thing in common: we're both Polish. :D

Go to this link

or you can still purchase the 2006 Books from Sporting News get your 50% discount and simply print out the 2007 changes on line and hand them out. There really is not that drastic of a change.

http://www.amazon.com/Official-Rules...4929651&sr=8-1

Too much of a hassle, believe me. Everyone wants everything neatly compacted into one, little publication. ;)

Then don't complain about $10 for a book...bought a book lately? $10 is cheap!

Apples and oranges. I buy hardcover books all the time, as I'm an avid reader; but OBR books at $10 each? Ridiculous.

if cost is an issue...any umpire who cares slightly more than zero will have or should be able to access the pro rule book online for the cost of 5 minutes at a public library, their home computer, or wherever...for guys who are often earning upwards of $70 - $100+ per game that they work to hem and haw about a $10 or less expense that teaches you the updates on how to do your job correctly (from a rules standpoint) is just plain miserly. cough up the $10 or find a buddy to give you his old rule book...one that's a year old is better than nothing...

It's obvious you don't understand the first thing about assigning for a bunch of individuals who simply will not do what you propose. (A) It's cumbersome [the online book cannot be printed as a single file], (B) it's time consuming, (C) it's not as easy as having a book readily on hand.

It is human nature to want things provided as easily as possible, and while I disdain spoonfeeding people, there are certain instances when it's best to make things easier. One of these is providing rule books--not a collection of printouts from the Web, but traditional rule books.

Please restrict your unhelpful comments to another thread. This one is for a source from which to obtain the OBR book. I don't need a lecture from someone unable to understand what I am asking.

chill brother...chill...i, like you, get an opinion on here. read the other threads...everybody gets an opinion...even on rules that are black and white...and quite honestly, obviously, neither of us care about each other's thoughts on this topic...if you can't take another opinion...what correlation is there between handing out rule books versus online access...you're still not guaranteed to get your people to read the rules...that's all I'm saying...and yes, I do have assigning experience since you implied otherwise. thanks

by the way...here are pdf's to the 2007 changes...
http://www.dixie.org/AssetFactory.aspx?did=199

otherwise get your books for $10 a piece...bump your annual dues by $5 there's your subsidy for the $10 books...

I'm not the one who needs to chill. If you cannot answer the original question of this thread, then don't comment by suggesting one should print hundreds of pieces of paper from the Internet instead.

OBR online is not available as a single, downloadable, printable file. One has to click on each section of the Official Rules, then one has to cut and paste the text, etc., etc. Not a very practical way to do it.

And much costlier than buying even a $10 book.

Have you even been reading this thread? I'm well aware of the .pdf file of changes. That's irrelevant, as the guys have them. I'm simply looking for the publisher of the 2007 OBR book, which would, like 2006's, include all these changes.

i've read more ramblings on this forum than i'd care to admit. who's saying you have to print this stuff off? if a person feels the need to print it, then they print it...if they want to read the rules off of the screen...then do that...for the most part...the rules that you will use 99% of the time in your games, you could probably use the rules from 1985 and be okay...that's not meant to be a knock on your or anybody...just being realistic in that amateur umpires typically do not know the entire rule book in the first place. JMO...boy do I hope you find your book...try amazon.com they even have used ones on there for like $3.00...since you appear to be a guy who likes deals...

Uh, Amazon doesn't have used 2007 editions.

And I'll be sure to recommend to our umpires to carry around computers so they can so easily access online OBR. After all, it's SO much quicker and easier than having a pocket size book to consult. :rolleyes:

No, but they have the last Sporting News edition (2006) new for 7.95

This is the same book being used by PBUC this year. It contains the changes made last year that became effective this year. The few additional changes made since its publication can be printed on a single page and given to each umpire. This is what they did at proschool this year. Some of the students just indicated the changes in their books.

Until the MLB follows through on its plans to self-publish the book, this is about the best available. Triumph has published its last edition in 2007, but their 2006 edition ignored all the changes and I don't know if they picked them up in the new book.

If one is serious about thier craft even though we are not PRO umpires simply bying the OBR rule book is a waste of time. Also, if an umpire gets paid some of those earnings are for Equipment and rule books.

The OBR rule book is terribly written, not indexed properly and contains over 200 errors. Also, more often then not one has to go through several rules to get the ENTIRE answer.

A simple one to get my point accross:

When a pitched ball hits the batter what award if any is awarded the batter and is the ball Live, immediately dead, or delayed dead.

We all know that the ball is immediately dead when a pitched ball strikes the batter and the batter is awarded first base. However, go find it in the OBR rule book.

You have to go to rule 6.08(b) which says B1 is awarded first base when touched by a pitched ball. The rule mentions nothing about the status of the ball. It does say that if B1 is not awarded first base the ball is immediately dead but that is not what I asked for.

To find out the status of the ball one needs to go to Rule 5.09(a)

There are many other type case plays in which the reader has to go to several rule codes (sometimes more than 2 rule codes) to get the 'complete picture" which is the reason an umpire should have in his/her possession a copy of the PBUC manual , J/R or Carl Childress's BRD. These materials EXPLAIN the rules, have case play analysis to aid the reader and are properly indexed. I left out Jim Evans book because it is not available at this time to the general public.

In Conclusion: If your umpires are not willing to spend at the very least $10.00 on a rule book what kind of umpires do you have?

Pete Booth

Johnny doesn't get it!
I on the other hand know exactly what you're looking for:
One leather bound OBR rules book for each umpire in your association individually boxed, labeled and shipped to their home, because if you know anything about human nature you know we don't want to go to meetings.
Each book of course will come pretabbed and labeled with your top 10 points of emphasis for the year because as we all know(except Johnny) most good umpires, like the ones in your association, most certainly need spoonfeeding.
Above all, we certainly don't want to get ripped off by the man. We can't have the publisher making a nickel off us, "WE'RE UMPIRES for HEAVENS SAKE" so you expect a fair price of $2.00 per book delivered.
So I'm with you on this one Ump
Get a life Johnny and stop trying to help when you have no idea what people are really looking for!!!

The Triumph 2007 OBR book offers quantity discounts by contacting :
Triumph Books Inc.
542 South Dearborn Street, Suite 750
Chigago, IL 60605
Tel: 312-939-3330
Fax: 312-663-3557.

Although copyrighted 2006, it does contain the new rule about being out if batter leaves batting circle on D3K. So maybe it has the other changes as well.

Also, one can cut and paste all the MLB OBR sections to a single word processing file, and then print that file.

i sure hope i'm sensing the sarcasm in your post...if it's serious...a comment isn't worth my time...personally, i think your post is great if meant to be funny. i'm sorry if i can't sleep at night if i get paid $90 to work a 2.5 hour game and i'm delivering a subpar performance on the field (still lots to learn) each and every game. that's the problem with our culture if that's your real stance...people want everything, but don't want to pay for anything...and in the same breath give me a 7% raise and pay for my health insurance as I smoke 4 packs a day.... I'm done...got a FED rules meeting to get to. to the rest of you out there who already have it all figured out...i aspire to be you someday...

Finally! Someone who gets it. :)

And with that, since my original question appears to have been answered much earlier by someone other than one who had nothing better to do than offer condescending opinions, I'll ask my friend Professor Jenkins to close this thread. :)

sweet...let me know if you save more than $1 per book.

You DO have fun changing your posts every few seconds, don't you?

the one i originally put there wasn't very nice...no it's not fun but i think you might have rabbit ears...you're very quick to reply...careful, that can get you into trouble on the diamond. thanks for the debate...i'm glad you were able to find your book.

That's OK. I just considered the source. ;)