The Official Professional Baseball Rules Book governs all aspects of the game of Major League Baseball beyond what happens on the field of play. There are a number of sources for these rules, but they all ultimately are sanctioned by the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball. Examples of these rules are the Rule 5 draft (so-named for the applicable section of the rule book) and the injured list. Other examples include:
The Official Professional Baseball Rules Book is organized into the following sections:
The below sections enumerate the numbered Major League Rules, both before and after Major League Baseball reorganized the minor leagues in advance of the 2021 season, as multiple rules were changed at that time.
As most rules do not state what the penalty is for a violation, broad discretion is granted to the Commissioner of Baseball via Rule 50, "Enforcement of Major League Rules", which specifies "action consistent with the commissioner’s powers under the Major League Constitution". [1]
The Major League Rules begin with a note stating that whenever a provision of any of its rules conflicts with a provision in the Basic Agreement (collective bargaining agreement) negotiated with the Major League Baseball Players Association, the provision in the Basic Agreement "shall in all respects control".
Source: [2]
The Rules are followed by an Acceptance; "The foregoing ... have been duly accepted by the Major League Clubs and the Leagues of the National Association."
There are then Attachments to the Rules (numbers refer back to Rule # above):
Source: [3]
The Rules are followed by an Acceptance; "The foregoing ... have been duly accepted by the Major League Clubs."
There are then Attachments to the Rules (numbers refer back to Rule # above):
The history of baseball in the United States dates to the 18th century, when boys and amateur enthusiasts played a baseball-like game by their own informal rules using homemade equipment. The popularity of the sport grew and amateur men's ball clubs were formed in the 1830–50s. Semi-professional baseball clubs followed in the 1860s, and the first professional leagues arrived in the post-American Civil War 1870s.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-related artifacts and exhibits, honoring those who have excelled in playing, managing, and serving the sport. The Hall's motto is "Preserving History, Honoring Excellence, Connecting Generations". Cooperstown is often used as shorthand for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Kenesaw Mountain Landis was an American jurist who served as a United States federal judge from 1905 to 1922 and the first Commissioner of Baseball from 1920 until his death. He is remembered for his handling of the Black Sox Scandal, in which he expelled eight members of the Chicago White Sox from organized baseball for conspiring to lose the 1919 World Series and repeatedly refused their reinstatement requests. His iron rule over baseball in the near quarter-century of his commissionership are generally credited with restoring public confidence in the game.
Peter Edward Rose Sr., also known by his nickname "Charlie Hustle", is an American former professional baseball player and manager. Rose played in Major League Baseball (MLB) from 1963 to 1986, most prominently as a member of the Cincinnati Reds lineup known as the Big Red Machine for their dominance of the National League in the 1970s. He also had a successful stint playing for the Philadelphia Phillies, where he won another World Series, as well as a brief stop with the Montreal Expos. During and after his playing career, he served as the manager of the Reds from 1984 to 1989.
The Atlantic League of Professional Baseball (ALPB) is a professional independent baseball league based in the United States. It is an official MLB Partner League based in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern United States. The Atlantic League's corporate headquarters is located at Clipper Magazine Stadium in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP) of 1871–1875, the NL is sometimes called the Senior Circuit, in contrast to MLB's other league, the American League, which was founded 25 years later and is called the "Junior Circuit". Both leagues currently have 15 teams.
The Commissioner of Baseball is the chief executive officer of Major League Baseball (MLB) and the associated Minor League Baseball (MiLB) – a constellation of leagues and clubs known as "organized baseball". Under the direction of the Commissioner, the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts. The commissioner is chosen by a vote of the owners of the teams. The incumbent MLB commissioner is Rob Manfred, who assumed office on January 25, 2015.
In baseball, the umpire is the person charged with officiating the game, including beginning and ending the game, enforcing the rules of the game and the grounds, making judgment calls on plays, and handling the disciplinary actions. The term is often shortened to the colloquial form ump. They are also sometimes addressed as blue at lower levels due to the common color of the uniform worn by umpires. In professional baseball, the term blue is seldom used by players or managers, who instead call the umpire by name. Although games were often officiated by a sole umpire in the formative years of the sport, since the turn of the 20th century, officiating has been commonly divided among several umpires, who form the umpiring crew. The position is analogous to that of a referee in many other sports.
Major League Baseball transactions are changes made to the roster of a major league team during or after the season. They may include waiving, releasing, and trading players, as well as assigning players to minor league teams.
The Major League Baseball draft is the primary mechanism of Major League Baseball (MLB) for assigning amateur baseball players from high schools, colleges, and other amateur baseball clubs to its teams. The draft order is determined based on a lottery where the teams who did not make the postseason in the past year participate in a state-lottery style process to determine the first six picks, starting in 2023. The team possessing the worst record receives the best odds of receiving the first pick. Until 2022, it was determined by the previous season's standings, with the worst team selecting first.
The Major League Baseball Constitution is a document under which the day-to-day operation of Major League Baseball is conducted. It was originally drafted in 1903 as the Constitution of the National League and has since been amended several times, most recently in June 2005.
The Philadelphia Stars were a Negro league baseball team from Philadelphia. The Stars were founded in 1933 when Ed Bolden returned to professional black baseball after being idle since early 1930. The Stars were an independent ball club in 1933, a member of the Negro National League from 1934 until the League's collapse following the 1948 season, and affiliated with the Negro American League from 1949 to 1952.
Robert Allan Davidson is a former umpire in Major League Baseball (MLB). Nicknamed "Balkin' Bob" and "Balk-a-Day Bob" for his tendency to liberally invoke baseball's balk rule, Davidson was an umpire on the National League (NL) staff from 1982 to 1999, and he was on the combined MLB umpiring staff from 2005 to 2016. He worked one World Series (1992) and several other postseason series.
Herman A. "Germany" Schaefer was a second baseman, first baseman and third baseman in Major League Baseball who played 15 seasons with the Chicago Cubs, Detroit Tigers, Washington Senators, Newark Pepper, New York Yankees, and Cleveland Indians.
Harry Simmons was an American professional baseball executive, writer and historian. He worked in Minor League Baseball for the International League from 1946 until 1966, first in New York City then in Montreal. He then worked in Major League Baseball for the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball until his retirement in 1982. Simmons was nicknamed "Mr. Baseball" and is an inductee of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
Some team sports put players on different official lists according to circumstances for that player, for example if they are injured. There can be different rules for players on different lists, and the details vary between sports.
Minor League Baseball (MiLB) is a professional baseball organization below Major League Baseball (MLB), including teams affiliated with MLB clubs.
Baseball personnel have cheated by deliberately violating or circumventing the game's rules to gain an unfair advantage against an opponent. Examples of cheating include doctoring the ball, doctoring bats, electronic sign stealing, and the use of performance-enhancing substances. Other actions, such as fielders attempting to mislead baserunners about the location of the ball, are considered gamesmanship and are not in violation of the rules.