I grew up watching baseball.  I watched no other sports, just baseball.  They adhere to many conventions when it comes to sports in general, and baseball in particular.  When broadcasters (or website) list sports scores, they list the home team second.  If the Dodgers play in Atlanta, they’ll list the LA Dodgers first; sometimes they’ll even say, “LA at Atlanta” for short.  Though that’s just a convention.

The home team bats second in each inning; they actually wrote this into the rules.  There are nuances in game play that extend from this rule.  However, this is a generic rule about baseball.  Major League Baseball established a few additional rules.  As a teenager, I had picked up a book on the MLB rules, I had few other vices.  I found some of the more obscure rules to be rather interesting.

The players’ uniforms need to be consistent color and appearance.  Each uniform may have the player’s surname on the back (or no name at all like some Yankee uniforms); it may not be the first name.  Ichiro Suzuki wore his first name on his uniform, but he needed to explicitly get special permission from the commissioner.  Back in the 1970’s, Ted Turner owned both the Atlanta Braves and TBS (which was often channel 17 on the tuner).  He propositioned Messersmith, the player with the jersey number 17, to change his name to Channel, so that the jersey read Channel 17.

One other really subtle baseball rule?  The home team wears white uniforms; the visiting team does not.  Sometimes they skirt the rules, such as colored jerseys and white pants, but the rule stipulates white uniforms.  I can quickly tell which team is playing at home by just the uniforms.

Additionally, baseball established other rules to address fairness, which fascinate me.

The infield fly rule

While I listened to the broadcasters announce that the umpires had called the “the infield fly rule” on a particular play, they simply added, “The batter is automatically out.”  This was even before the infielder caught the ball which perplexed me.  Here’s the situation:

• Two or more runners, on first and second base.
• Fewer than two outs.
• Batter hits a fly ball in the infield.

The runners need to determine whether to run to the next base, this is based on their assessment on whether the ball is likely to be caught in the air:

• If caught in the air and they fail to return to their base of origin, they may get doubled-off the base.
• If the ball is not caught in the air (hits the ground), they may get forced at their destination base.

The baserunners face this dilemma.  Infielders catch these fly balls in the infield so consistently, that the baserunners generally stay on their bases.  However, the infielders may elect to allow the ball to hit the ground (making it a routine ground ball) and forcing the runners on third and second base; they’d get a double play and off the lead runners.  This sets up an unfair scenario:

• If the runners stay on their bases, they may be forced via the ground ball.
• If the runners advance to the next base, they may be doubled off their base for advancing too soon.

Baseball acknowledged that this scenario was unfair to the runners (they’d be sitting ducks either way), so they established the ‘infield fly rule’.  That batter is ruled out by fly ball immediately, and force plays are eliminated from the play.

The balk rule

Every once in a while, you see a balk called during a game.  All runners advance independent of which base they currently occupy.  They established several rules that describe a balk, all nuanced and confusing.  The principle is surprisingly simple; the pitcher may not deceive the baserunner.  Upon violating this rule, the baserunners get a free base.

The most common violation of the balk is throwing the ball towards first base to keep the runner close.  The pitcher must step towards first base when throwing towards first base.  Right-handed pitchers don’t naturally step in this direction while pitching, so they’ll rarely violate this rule.  Left-handed pitchers naturally wind up facing first base, so they may start their natural pitching motion but instead throw towards first base and picking off the runner.  The nuance is whether they legitimately stepped towards first base or instead towards home.

Whenever you actually observe a balk called, keep in mind that it aspires to keep the pitcher from deceiving the runner.  I won’t tell you that they effectively accomplish this with their current set of cryptic rules, but I appreciate the aspiration for fairness.

The All-Star Game

During the middle of summer (right around Independence Day), MLB holds its All-Star Game.  Baseball markets the All-Star Game as a contest between the best of one league versus the best of the other league.  Fans submit their votes for favorite players for each position, and those selected players will make the 40-player roster.  The respective managers for the American and National league select the remaining 30 players.  Each All-Star roster must include a player from each of the 15 teams in each league; this means that each MLB team will be represented.

MLB oscillates between two options for uniforms.  They make custom jerseys for each league for the game, or each player wears their own team’s jersey.  Dodger players will wear Dodger uniforms.  Supporters of the custom jerseys will assert that members of each team should look the same, since they’re members of one team.  I disagree, each player should wear the uniform of the team they represent.

“Well, how can you tell which players are teammates?”  The above (start of post) rule still applies, the home team wears white uniforms; the visiting team wears non-white uniforms.  It works surprisingly well.  If you search for team portraits of All-Star teams over the years, you’ll see precisely this.

What we can learn from baseball

Looking at the above, baseball establishes three nuanced principles that we may apply to real life.  Let’s step back and examine them:

• Unfairness exists in unexpected places:  Much like “The infield fly” or “balk” rules, they addressed what was inherent unfairness in the game.  The implementation may be a bit unconventional or difficult to understand but applaud the spirit of addressing the unfairness.  If it’s not perfect, then amend the rule, don’t abolish it.  Having an imperfect rule is better than allowing the unfairness to linger.  Reflect on issues like affirmative action.
• Assure everyone is represented:  The All-Star Baseball Game established that each rosters require a player from every major league team.  Your workforce should mirror your target customers.  If that’s the entire US population, then your workforce should be around 12.5% black.  On early versions of activity trackers (like Fitbit), the heart rate monitor did not work correctly with wearers with dark skin.  Do you think they would have redesigned that feature if one in eight employees couldn’t use it?
• Celebrate the differences: The All-Star teams wore their respective teams’ uniforms as they played the game.  The color of the uniform (white versus non-white) indicated which team, but the uniforms were different.  You may see an Oriole and a Yankee play in the same infield as teammates; they are different but together.  Don’t forget your roots; you may be an All-Star but you’re also a Pirate.  Celebrate your diversity; if you all thought alike, you’ll end up making the same mistakes.  Your diversity is your strength, not a weakness.

I’m sure there are more examples, but these will do for now.