Babe Ruth FPSR question

[BT_Blue]

Does Babe Ruth have a FPSR? And if so, is it tge FED, NCAA, or OBR? Or some mix?

[LRZ]

I don't work Babe Ruth ball, so I can't answer directly, but the BRL rule book is on-line. Surprisingly, a quick search under "slide" turned up nothing: https://siplay-website-content-user.s3.amazonaws.com/Portal/2302/Content/Documents/Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken Rules/brl 2018 baseball rules and regulations ebook.pdf

The rule book does reference OBR for tournament play: "All Babe Ruth Tournament Rules and Regulations are in addition to Official Baseball Rules 1.00 through 9.05."

But unless I missed something...how odd, no specific FPSR or collision provision for regular, league play.

[Jimurray]

4 hours ago, LRZ said:

I don't work Babe Ruth ball, so I can't answer directly, but the BRL rule book is on-line. Surprisingly, a quick search under "slide" turned up nothing: https://siplay-website-content-user.s3.amazonaws.com/Portal/2302/Content/Documents/Babe Ruth and Cal Ripken Rules/brl 2018 baseball rules and regulations ebook.pdf

The rule book does reference OBR for tournament play: "All Babe Ruth Tournament Rules and Regulations are in addition to Official Baseball Rules 1.00 through 9.05."

But unless I missed something...how odd, no specific FPSR or collision provision for regular, league play.

Wouldn't the OBR rules now be sufficient? 

[LRZ]

Could be, I don't know. The tournament rules specifically incorporate OBR but the league play rules don't mention OBR. What does the silence mean? "Just gotta umpire" and apply OBR, regardless? I scanned the rules, looking for references to OBR, so I don't think I missed anything, but it's possible.

[Senor Azul]

In the Foreword to the 2015 edition of the Babe Ruth League rule book it states the following—

“As in all divisions of Babe Ruth League, Inc., Cal Ripken Baseball strives to play under rules as close to the Official Baseball Rules as possible.”

[LRZ]

Thanks, Senor Azul, I did miss that, although I'm not sure how much guidance it provides in answering the question. Considering that the next sentence talks about "the accepted standards of safety," I still find it odd, though, that the actual playing rules don't mention a FPSR or collision rule.

[Senor Azul]

I found the following text in a 2009 document from the Connecticut Babe Ruth League--

"There is no codified 'must slide rule' at any Babe Ruth or Cal Ripken level. Because some leagues adopt a 'must slide rule' for the regular season, managers, coaches, players and parents are often surprised that the rule is not in effect for post-season tournaments as well."

Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken leagues do have something called the contact rule, and it appears on page 20 of the 2015 rulebook:

CONTACT RULE (All Divisions)—If a runner attempting to reach home plate or a base intentionally and maliciously runs into a defensive player, he will be called out on the play and ejected from the game. The objective of this is to penalize the offensive team for deliberate, unwarranted, unsportsmanlike action by the runner for the obvious purpose of crashing the defensive player. Obviously, this is an umpire’s judgment call.

[goody14]

The 2019 Babe Ruth Book is pretty much a copy and paste of old OBR (before they changed the numbering and format). As such, there is no bona fide slide section.

But, they still have the 6.05(m) which says any runner is out if the preceding runner intentionally interferes with a fielder attempting to throw a ball to complete the play. I would use the provisions of the new bona fide slide rule to gauge whether there was interference in this case.

Not sure if this is black letter correct, but it not too much of a stretch.