"shall properly wear uniforms..."

[Dakota]

Originally posted by justmom
Does anybody know what the original intent of the rule was?

It is not safety. It is about having teams look neat, and about not having a playing situation change because part of a uniform was out of place. By rule, if the pitch touches the uniform, that is the same as a hit batter. With loose shirt tails, blowing in the breeze, it is entirely possible to have a batter "hit" because the shirt was not tucked in.

Of course, like Mike suggested, the umpire could "not see" the ball touch the shirt.

With ordinary league games, I don't worry about it.

In tournaments, if the TD makes a point of it in the tournament rules, I'll mention it once at the plate meeting and perhaps after that if things become too sloppy (or it is windy).

In championship play, I enforce it.