The Infield Fly Rule Summary

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Suezengky Yang
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In the article “The Common Law Origins of the Infield Fly Rule,” William S. Stevens distinguishes the similarity between the Anglo-American Common Law and the Infield Fly Rule. He starts off by explaining the process of adopting the Infield Fly rule then creates an analogy with the common law. From a broader viewpoint, these two may be significantly different, one residing in baseball and the other in the judicial system. However, the common Law and the Infield fly rule share very significant elements. That being said, they both went through the process of gradual change and legislative adjustments to repair their flawed system.
The first organized games of baseball dated back to 1845 (Stevens 3). Initially, players who partook in baseball were wealthy men. There was no winning either because the objective of the game was to simply exercise. Early on in the article, Stevens explained that the rules were kept to a minimal because players believed that the moral force would have governed the game …show more content…

Stevens argued that although this particular occurrence did not result in a double play, the chances of it was quite possible (Stevens 4). The double play would have been achieved if only the ball was not hit as high (Stevens 4). Stevens explained in the article that this incident called for a change, “because the defense obtained an unfair advantage that it did not deserve and that the offense could have not prevented” (Stevens 4). He then went on to say that although umpires could call the batter out, it would only create more problems than it solved (Stevens 4). Thus lead to the adoption of the “trap ball” rule in 1894. The “trap ball” rule declared the batter out, if he hit a ball that could be handled by an infielder (Stevens 5). If the batter was out, the runner would not have to run, therefore, it kept him safe. For this to happen, however, first base had to be occupied with only one out (Stevens

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