THE EXCITING GAME WITHOUT ANY RULES.

THE EXCITING GAME WITHOUT ANY RULES. Baseball nearly had a disaster last night. Mark Harris wrote a baseball novel in which the players passed the time in hotel lobbies playing TEGWAR (“The Exciting Game Without Any Rules”). The joke was on the kibitzers who would gather around and try to figure out the rules; the players would make up new rules continually to frustrate them. Last night what could have been the last game of the World Series was played without some of the players and many of the fans knowing what the rules were for that game. Ordinarily a game that has gone five innings that is rained out with one team leading is official. With ordinary rules, if the rain had stopped the game with the Phillies leading after that time, the Phillies would have won the World Series. Apparently Bud Selig, the Commissioner, had changed the rule an hour before game time to provide that the game would have to go a regulation nine innings. The amazing thing is that he told representatives of each team, but did not make a public announcement. This story shows that a number of the players did not know about the rule change. This story says that “there were real questions being raised in the press box and throughout the ballpark” as it looked likely that the game would be stopped for the night with the Phillies in the lead. The Rays tied the score as the rain fell. Otherwise, the fans and reporters at the game would have found that the rules were not what they thought. Imagine trying to explain to fans that the rules were different—especially to Phillies fans. Why wasn’t there a public announcement of the rule change?