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Wendelstedt Rules and Interpretations Manual

Wendelstedt Rules and Interpretations Manual

Product Details
Preface from the Manual... 
 
This manual was designed to supplement the Official Baseball Rules, and the interpretations and common application included provide a clear and concise understanding of rules as they were most closely intended to be read. The Official Baseball Rules is one of the oldest codes in professional sports that have never been completely overhauled. As situations arose throughout the years which were not specifically covered in the rules, it fell upon the Rules Committees to come up with new rules that would fill these gaps. For fear of making drastic rules replacements, the code was only added to, never rewritten. After the 1976 season, the Rules Committee also agreed to include the casebook comments found in both the National and American League umpire notices and directives of interpretations. These additions to the rules have often caused for contradiction and confusion regarding how the rules are to be enforced. This supplemental material was intended to solve some of that confusion and misunderstanding.
 
This manual was compiled together by the staff of the Wendelstedt Umpire School, through many years of instruction and rules re-organization. This staff is composed of several full time Major League umpires, numerous Minor League umpires, and formerly consisted of five current Major League umpire supervisors. This manual is designed and assembled using several criteria including the common and clarified organization of the rules, the ordinary order in which most rulings will be made throughout a game, and the methods and teaching timeline used during the Wendelstedt Umpire School 5-Week Professional Course.
 
Whenever possible, the interpretations mentioned are officially recognized by the umpires and supervisors of both the Minor and Major Leagues. However, in cases where “official” interpretation
are not directly available, we have provided suggestions as to how the plays and situations should be ruled on using the practical and common applications of professional umpires today.
 
The Rules and Interpretations Manual provides a summary of areas of the rulebook that are complicated, offers OBR rulebook cross-references, adds historical contexts and useful hints in applying rules on the field to aid in the reasoning for such rulings, and is designed to comprehensively rewrite and reorganize the rules in an orderly an understandable fashion. It will include crossreferences
with the relevant amateur rules in NFHS, NCAA, and NAIA playing codes. Each area is clearly identified. It also provides a variety of reference plays and situations to greater clarify specific rulings.
 

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80%
Umpire in Chief

Umpire in Chief's Comments

Summary: More than just a manual
September 14th, 2011

This is more than your typical rules and interpretation manual. You can actually sit down and read this manual cover to cover almost like a novel; it is much more than a reference guide.

Here I what I like about it:


Harry's Hints - Scattered throughout the manual you will find Harry's Hints. These are little gems of advice and how to apply the rules are great. Many times they help clarify the concept being covered.


Historical References - This is also one of my favorite parts of the book. Through the book you will see little history tidbits. These really speak to me. I think it really helps in some situations to know where a rule came from.


Rules inconsistencies - The Wendelstedt Rules and Interpretation Manual "targets" some inconsistencies in the OBR. While there are only about 5 of these in the manual I really like how in certian ones it gives the official ruling and the preferred ruling. Very thought prevoking.


Official MLB & PBUC Interpretations -  The manual gives both interpretations together. I find it interesting to see how 2 professional baseball orgainizations can differ, even if slightly.


Example Plays - In the footnotes you will find example plays. These example plays clarify rules discussed.

Organization - The manual is well put together and well indexed. The citations reference FED and NCAA rules. But not this is not a FED or NCAA manual; it is dedicated to OBR.


Appearance - The book is well put together very much like what you would expect. The cover is attractive and bound well. I am not a fan of spiral binding or three ring binder style.


Reference Plays- This Manual has 400 reference plays. What an incredible resource.


My only suggestion for improvement would be to make the font of the Course Notes & Information larger. I understand why it was made smaller, to seperate it from the other areas of the manual.


Also if at all possible I'd like to see more Harry's Hints.


This is a must have for your umpiring reference library.



Full disclosure... Yes I obviously have some bias and the manual was provided at no cost. That said I am writing this as objectively as humanly possible.

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