I'm writing this post from the hotel at the Nations Baseball director's convention. We have finished updating the national rules (of which I happen to be the editor because I am a technical writer by trade). There are not many changes for 2010, but there are a few, which I will outline here:
- Nations Baseball now now falls back on MLB rules instead of NFHS (high school) rules.
- There are two date options for insurance: August 1 - July 31, and January 1 - December 31.
- Teams cannot add players on the start date of an event. (This had changed a couple of times.)
- Nations Baseball points are the 5th tie breaker before coin toss for pool play.
- A blood rule was added. Players, coaches, or umpires visibly bleeding must leave the field of play until the bleeding is stopped. Missed at bats are not penalized, but if the team drops below eight, it is still a forfeit.
- The slide rule was modified to read that if the runner slides it must be directly into the bag (instead of defining how to slide in detail). There is still no rule that states that runners must slide.
- The maximum outs (27 or 30) was changed to read "in three consecutive days" instead of "in a three-day tournament."
- In the national rules, pitchers who violate pitching limits will be ejected from the game and the team will be subject to other penalties, including forfeit. However, a state rule is being added that exceeding the pitching limitations results in a forfeit (which is how it was before).
- A safety box around the pitching machine has been defined.
- Metro rules have been added.
- Other clarifications and editorial changes have been added.
These rules will be available on the Rules menu of
www.bayareaball.org as soon as they are uploaded on the Nations Baseball website. Changes are marked in red with change bars on the left.
