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Show Marked Improvement Made in Revised Baseball Rules It will pay baseball enthusiasts and score-keepers especially, to give the revised re-vised rules for scoring a careful reading before they begin business tills year. Tho Chicago Tribune, speaking of tho revised rules, gives expression to tho following sensible remarks: Tno careful revision to which the baseball base-ball playing rules have been subjected during tho off season this year has produced pro-duced a vast Improvement in the code. This was entirely distinct from tho annual an-nual revision by tho rules commlttco to modify their effect or to Introduco new regulations. For years tho playing codo has been a standing Joko to grammarians, and a puzzlo to many disciples of tho game, because many rules have bceen retained re-tained in practically their original form. With each year's changes In tho gamo tho old rules were modified, where necessary, neces-sary, to meet tho new requirements, and i the result was a lot' of involved sentences, with provisos and exceptions which often obscured tho real meaning. And thcrp wcro many Instances of actual conflicts between different sections of tho code. Tho object of tho grammatical revision was to condense and simplify this mass of verbiage,, ver-biage,, and It resulted In putting tho rules In simple, direct language, which can bo Interpreted by any baseball enthusiast of I average intelligence-. ' Thero arc, perhaps, one or two instances in tho revised code whero exact accuracy is sacrificed to savo words. For instance, the rulo which defines tho logal position required of tho pitcher winds up with tho sentence: "Ho shall not raise either foot until in the net of delivering tho ball to the bat." If tho umpires were to adhere to the letter of tho law It would forco a pitcher to throw to a base without raising rais-ing either foot. But another section provides pro-vides that in throwing to a base tho pitcher pitch-er must "step directly toward such baso in tho net of throwing." There Is only an apparent conflict, of course, and any umpire um-pire would permit a pitcher to raise his foot in throwing to a baso. but that conflict con-flict could havo been avoided by tho use of thrco of four more words In the first rulo quoted. In tho matter of the scoring rules these has been tho greatest Improvement, Improve-ment, for the magnates used to let thoso alone; consequently, tho old scoring code was many years btilnd tho game. If tho scorers of tho country will read the new rules carefully thero will bo much greater uniformity In scoring this year. Thero will no longer bo any excuse ex-cuse for the man who robs a player of a put-out by making a noto at the bottom of tho score than somebody wns put out for "Interference," or an "Infield fiy" or a "third foul bunt," or "not touching a base," as has been tho, practice of many for years past. |