A beloved pastime throughout much of the world, baseball is a great sport that offers fans a chance to witness fast-paced action and true skill on the field.
While most of the world’s baseball is centred within the United States, the sport has grown in popularity in recent years, and is now enjoyed by millions of people across the world.
All official baseball games and the players that take part in them need to follow a certain set of rules that are set out in the MLB rule handbook. Most of these rules tend to govern how the game is played, what the players are and aren’t allowed to do, and more.
But there are some rules that are so strange that they need to be seen to be believed. There are some of the weirdest rules that can be found in the official MLB handbook.
Catching The Ball With A Hat
For the small games that are played amongst children, it’s not uncommon to see them try and catch the ball using their hat. It’s usually a funny gimmick that doesn’t cause any harm, and often doesn’t mean having to put an end to the game. This doesn’t apply to organised games, however, where players can suffer big penalties for catching the ball using their hats.
It’s a rule that a player is forbidden from attempting to manipulate the ball in any way by making use of their uniform, which includes trying to catch the ball with an upturned hat. While it’s a strange rule, it’s also one that makes sense: using a hat can increase the chances of successfully catching the ball and gives the catcher an unfair advantage when they should be using their hands instead.
Spitting On The Ball
Another rule that’s probably mostly unknown by most is that it’s not legal within the game to spit on the ball for any reason.
During the early years of the game, it was common for pitchers to experiment with different ways of gaining an upper hand against the hitter and spitting on the ball was one of them that caught on quickly and made the rounds among the pitchers of the time.
It was a practise that would last until the 1920s, when they made it against the rules to spit on a ball for any reason, and doing so today could result in some serious penalties, and see them forced to the sideline to spend their time instead playing the best online slots in Canada.
Stuck in The Catcher’s Mask
The catcher is the person that sits behind the plate and wears heavy gear, and their job is to catch the ball of the hitter is unable to make contact with it. It’s a difficult position to fill, and there are plenty of rules that apply to the catcher and their actions.
One specific rule is that if the ball is somehow lodged in the face mask of the catcher, the runners are given the chance to advance an entire free base. It’s a rarity, but when it does happen, it can often turn the tide of the game.