| 02 September 2010
A little housecleaning at the offices of Major League Baseball revealed that baseball's unwritten rules, once thought to be vague and ill-defined, were actually scribbled into a notebook in 1942 by a member of then Commissioner Kennesaw Mountain Landis's staff.
"We never would have discovered that old notebook if we hadn't been doing a little organizing, trying to modernize things around here," said MLB's Executive Vice President of Baseball Operations, Jimmie Lee Solomon. "Since we didn't need them anymore, we moved out a couple vertical file cabinets after selling them on Craigslist and found this old notebook stashed in an out of the way corner."
The rules scribed in 1942 stated such guidelines as proper etiquette during a no-hitter, to always take a pitch on a 3-0 count, and that a player should never steal a base when his team is ahead by a bunch of runs unless he's trying to impress some 'skirt' or 'dame'.
Solomon says he's unsure why these rules never made it into the official rule book.
"The 1940s were a difficult time for baseball's commissioner. His office probably didn't get around to typing it up with World War II going on and trying to keep baseball segregated and all."
Also discovered tucked away were three Royal Aristocrat typewriters and several members of the 1946 St. Louis Browns.
Related Links:
Page 2 details unwritten rules of baseball fights (ESPN)
Ten unwritten baseball rules you may not know (Big League Stew)
The 20 Stupidest Unwritten Rules In Sports (Bleacher Report)
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