SHIFTING GEARS

CHANGING BASEBALL THE LOOK OF BY EDITING ITS RULE BOOK IS A PRACTICE ALMOST AS OLD AS THE GAME ITSELF

- EMMA BACCELLIERI

ASEBALL REALIZED it had a problem in 1909: Its teams were getting smarter than its rule book.

There was growing enthusiasm for a newfangled strategy called "relief pitching." But there was no obvious way of preparing for a pitching change. The rules did not allow much time for warming up: If a manager wanted to pull his starter, he was supposed to immediately name a reliever, who in turn was supposed to get to the mound right away. That didn't often lead to great pitching. And so managers were inspired to find a workaround.