Entertainment desk
< November 1	<< Oct \| November \| Dec >>	November 3 >

Welcome to the Wikipedia Entertainment Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

November 2

What would baseball be like if?

1. Rules against passing runners and sharing bases didn't exist?

2. #1 plus scoring doesn't make you go back to the dugout, only getting out or the end of the inning? (to minimize the chance of man on fourth interference, runners who want to stop at home move to a 4th base far from home in foul territory before the next batter gets ready. It's also 90 feet from their next objective: 1st base)

3. #2 plus the fences are 500 yards. Outside-the-park home runs are humanly impossible.

or

4. The game didn't reset to "no men on base" every inning? Sagittarian Milky Way (talk) 06:17, 2 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Items 1, 2 and 4 wouldn't be baseball anymore, it would be something else. Item 2 sounds vaguely like Rounders. Item 3 is how it used to be, back in the Knickerbocker days. The way to get a home run was to hit the ball between the outfielders and circle the bases, literally a "home" "run". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 08:17, 2 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Are you honestly expecting us to give your reliable source references to research a fictional rule changes you just invented yourself? Read WP:CRYSTAL to understand why that is something we cannot do here. There are MANY internet forums where you could get people to discuss these questions, this just isn't one of them. The best we can offer is to show you references for how baseball has actually changed over time. Origins of baseball discusses some early versions of the game. History of baseball in the United States picks up from there. Baseball rules has a section on various rule changes over history. [This timeline at Baseball-Almanac.com is also useful for your research. So does this article at Howstuffworks.com. --Jayron 32 12:10, 2 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

We can also point to examples of discussion forums that might be suitable. Here's [1] one; Reddit also has /r/baseball. SemanticMantis (talk) 16:07, 2 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Here are the so-called Knickerbocker Rules of 1845.[2] There have been many refinements over the last 170-plus years, but the essence of the game we know today is contained within these rules. Note that item 4 was addressed from day one: "Three hands out, all out." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:47, 2 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Sportswriter/author Leonard Koppett, in his book The Thinking Fan's Guide to Baseball, opined on #4. I don't have the book handy, but as I recall, he said (paraphrasing), "If runners who were not put out could return to their bases the next inning, it would still be baseball, although a much higher-scoring game." → Michael J Ⓣ Ⓒ Ⓜ 14:18, 7 November 2016 (UTC)[reply]