Anyone know who's now publishing Official Baseball Rules?

[UMP25]

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.

[UmpJM]

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

[UMP25]

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.

[GarthB]

Originally Posted by UMP25

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.

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.

[DG]

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

[UMP25]

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.

[UMP25]

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

[PeteBooth]

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

[UMP25]

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

[johnnyg08]

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

[UMP25]

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

[johnnyg08]

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...

[PeteBooth]

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