Baseball Field Guide: An In-Depth, Illustrated Guide to the Complete Rules of Baseball

by Dan Formosa, Paul Hamburger

The Baseball Field Guide is an armchair reference guide to the sport. It organizes and explains the vague, misleading, confusing, inconsistent, and obscure rules governing America’s favorite pastime. This book is thorough, covering all the rules from the most basic to the most obtuse. Easy-to-use, it is designed to facilitate quick and intuitive searches. The guide offers several tools to help navigate through the thicket of information, including a logical sequence of topics, a helpful table of contents, a comprehensive index, and richly cross-referenced information.

The breadth and depth of The Baseball Field Guide will satisfy the most dedicated fan’s interest in details and minutia, offering hours of random browsing as a source of entertainment. This is a necessary resource for any fan, an excellent gift for those who have followed baseball for years, or for those who have just discovered the game.

Genres: Baseball, Sports, Reference, Nonfiction

240 pages, Paperback

First published March 14, 2006

Reviews

[patrick Lorelli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book goes over everything that you need to know about the game of baseball. The rules for, managers, umpires, players, even fans attending games. For anyone coaching this book explains it all. Even for the weekend umpire you have it in this book. The width of the batter box, rules on interference, when the infield fly rule is called. When reading this it went over everything. A good book for any coach, or parent getting into coaching or umpiring. I got this book from netgalley. I gave it 5 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com

[Todd N · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is more of a reference than a book to read all the way through, though I did read most of it in several sittings.

I figured that since I’m old and the kids are out of the house, it was time to get into baseball. We also have a professional team as well as the pre-season Grapefruit League right in our backyard. My girlfriend and I got some pre-season Blue Jays tickets and enjoyed them. Then on a lark I got tickets to the Rays season opener and really enjoyed that.

However, my knowledge of baseball is limited to going to see the Toledo Mud Hens a dozen or so times as a kid. We found ourselves accidentally cheering for a game losing out, not understanding how the third out is different. Embarrassed, I ordered a copy of this book to read.

I found it a very useful reference. Statements like, “There are 4 outcomes of a pitch,” and “There are 4 outcomes when the ball is hit by the batter,” are perfect for wrapping my engineer brain around the game. [[[Aside: I learned grammar the same way. There are 8 parts of speech. There are 7 coordinating conjunctions… Give me the top-down version of anything and I immediately get it, but I’m unable to infer something from the ground up.]]]

After digesting the book, I am following games on AM radio, which appears to be the best way to take in a game outside of actually being there.

[Norman · Rating 5 out of 5]

I started reading this because I was going to be a new little league umpire. It has great figures and descriptions of every part of baseball. This made the rules so much clearer to me. In fact, because of how it's broken out, each rule is explained for every position of play, which makes the relevant rules easier to find, and easier to determine the proper ruling. It has come in handy when an infield fly rule, what is and isn't a foul ball, or what bases are awarded on an obstruction call. I'd highly recommend for any novice to expert.

[Felisa Cárdenas · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guide is perfect for everyone, whether you’re brand new learning the game or a long-time die-hard fan, the field guide breaks down the rules of baseball from bare basics to the the intricate details of the Major and Minor leagues. It’s an easy read before bed or an easy read when proving a point, not to mention it is organized perfectly and includes photos and illustrations to explain various points throughout the book.

[Jenn Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have NO idea when or why I bought this (thrift store?) but I finally went through it roughly cover to cover to get a feel for some more nuanced things I didn't understand. Lots of fun facts including the ridiculous story of Eddie Gaedel (worth gooogling). At this point it's a little outdated and I had to reference updated rules for comparison, but as of its own publication it was very thorough and up-to-date.

[Tacitus · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an easy-to-read version of the official MLB rules, with helpful examples and diagrams. It’s intended as a reference, so it does not lend itself to a complete, cover-to cover reading. Still, it’s fun to skim through and read about whatever rules interest you or you’ve wondered about.

[Mike Rudolph · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best one yet!

The Best one Yet, a great referance easy to understand but, most important it’s easy to look up that obscure rule to realize why the call?

[Du · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written and accessible primer on the baseball. The scope of the book is broad, and while the right-ups are concise they are very detailed. Overall really well done.

[Leo Rozin · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is basebal book so good

[Shannon Ferguson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. So informative and concise. I actually purchased for my collection.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good Overview if Major League Rules

I bought this book because the league I broadcast uses Major League Baseball rules. This was a simple and quick read. I liked that it did repeat several items in the rule book in different chapters because it helped reenforce different rules. Highly recommend.

[Maura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really wasn't planning on buying another baseball book. i really was just enjoying browsing thru the Brookline Booksmith and was scanning the sports shelves because, well, they were there. and i don't even know why i actually took it off the shelf. but as soon as i opened it up, i was hooked. (there may have been drool involved...)

this, dear reader, is a marvel of design. they've taken the official major league baseball rules (which are wordy and really not fun to read thru, never mind easy to look things up in) and organized them and printed them up in an inviting fashion, with lots of useful diagrams for those who are more visually inclined. they give lots of examples. it's just beautiful really. no, i'm not suffering from hyperbole -- take a look at their explanation of how a pitcher pitches. Tell me that's not clear. Tell me that's not visually inviting. You won't, because you can't. (hey, it turns out that the guys who wrote it both worked for Smart Design -- dudes who improved the Oxo Good Grips kitchen line. no wonder this is so well done!)

it's perfect for someone just learning the game, or someone (like me) who's got the basics down but still doesn't get the infield fly rule, or even someone who just wants to remind themselves of some arcane rule that only comes up once in a blue moon. and even people who don't care about baseball should flip thru it in a bookstore at some point just to see what a how-to/explanatory tome should look like.

[Jennifer Didik · Rating 4 out of 5]

i actually forgot i had this. and only because it's not the sort of book you read from cover to cover, but when a certain scenario occurs (in your head or in reality) and you need a quick reference, then you pick it up. there are indeed some rules and factoids that exist who no one recalls, at least, not i. for example, there is actually a rule that if, after reaching first base successfully, if you overrun the base and don't come back to the bag quickly enough (in the opinion of the ump) you can actually be tagged out. who knew? also, home plate umps are allowed to have this little clicker in their hand to help them keep track of balls, strikes and outs.

[Złota Pochodnia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this just for fun. I would consider myself fairly knowledgeable about baseball, but my understanding of the rules falls just a bit short of encyclopedic. So I knocked this book out to correct that issue. It was extremely detailed on each individual rule, and explained some confusing edge cases well. Having read the whole thing, I'd say it's definitely better used as recommended, which is as a reference book rather than something to read straight through.

[Erika Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure how to rate a rule book - good explanations. I've been trying to read this at the beginning of baseball season for several years. I was going to finish it this year so I could better understand and score my son's games. I learned a lot and more than I can remember but this is an excellent guide.

[Leonard Pierce · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a queer little bird of a book: it's essentially just a baseball rulebook, but it was put together by a team of crack graphic designers to provide visual illustrations of all the info. Gorgeous, although not all that useful.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent reference for anyone at all interested in baseball. Every stat has a story.

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Didn't have time to finish this book before it was time to return it to the library but would love to have it in my home library.