The march forward of the J/R

On 15 April, 1997, a graduate of the Brinkman school, Bill Knaffl, mentioned "the Brinkman manual" on the newsgroup "rec.sport.officiating." I believe that's the first reference to what we now call the J/R or Jaksa/Roder. Its official title is The Rules of Professional Baseball. Mr. Knaffl's last post on that newsgroup — on any other as far as I can find — was 18 October, 1997. Since then — silence.

That was a pity. In March and April of 1999 on the same newsgroup, I was also citing from that manual. A wannabe "expert" intimated I was making up the whole thing. Ah, sweet mystery of life....

Question: Why the intense interest now in the J/R?

Continued...