Officiating.com and I are beginning a series of articles on the common rules of baseball. I've scheduled batting out of order first. That's not because it's common; quite the reverse: The rarer the infraction, the more likely the umpire is to kick the rule.
Point one
The linchpin of the batting out of order penalty is: The guy who batted out of order is never out. That means some umpires and many fans will miss the ruling. Now and again a sports writer will do the same!
Baker gets dusted (pun intended)
On 16 April, 2004, plate umpire C.B. Bucknor upheld a batting out of order appeal against the Cubs. Twelve days later Bob Watson, baseball's vice-president in charge of field operations, suspended manager Dusty Baker for one game because of his tirade against Bucknor. The writer for the MSNBC SportsTicker explained it this way:
Continued...
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