Althouse: How well do you understand the rules of baseball?

June 20, 2013

How well do you understand the rules of baseball?

Take this test.

51 comments:

MadisonMan said...: 30%.

Curiously, the ones that most people got wrong, I got right!; 6/20/13, 12:22 PM
Tibore said...: I knew I was going to score horribly, and I did. 3 of 10... and the last two, I got tired with thinking about it and didn't read, I just clicked through. So I really only have a legit 1 out of 10, especially since I read the ones I skipped and know I would've answered the opposite.

Basketball, I can answer, NCAA way better than NBA. Football, ditto, 'cept the other way around (I know NFL rules better than college ones). Baseball... yeah, I barely know anything beyond the basics. I'm amazed I even got the one right.; 6/20/13, 12:26 PM
SteveR said...: I started but found the names too distracting. Keep it simple; 6/20/13, 12:26 PM
drunkdebunker said...: 4 right, ouch... at least I know what a can of corn is...; 6/20/13, 12:30 PM
drunkdebunker said...: 4 right, ouch... at least I know what a can of corn is...; 6/20/13, 12:31 PM
ricpic said...: 2 out of 10. Baseball is not a logical game. ;^); 6/20/13, 12:43 PM
Chip Ahoy said...: How well did you do?; 6/20/13, 12:46 PM
BarrySanders20 said...: O-fer 10. And I was trying.

I need to stick to football.; 6/20/13, 12:49 PM
BarrySanders20 said...: O-fer 10. And I was trying.

I need to stick to football.; 6/20/13, 12:50 PM
RonF said...: OMG - I got ONE right.; 6/20/13, 12:51 PM
Rusty said...: Not very well. 20%; 6/20/13, 12:52 PM
Christy said...: 2 correct. I guess all those years - the Ripken, Jr. years - of season tickets taught me nothing.; 6/20/13, 1:01 PM
Patrick said...: I did poorly, but in my defense I was thrown way off by the implausibility of the Twins getting enough hits to load the bases.; 6/20/13, 1:03 PM
Patrick said...: I got 5 right, which is half, meaning that my technique of guessing worked perfectly.; 6/20/13, 1:04 PM
Dave D said...: These are all VERY obscure rules. I bet that among all 10, they don't happend more than a few times a season. I'm a baseball fanatic and got 3/10.; 6/20/13, 1:04 PM
Pianoman said...: Tough quiz. I got 3/10 correct.; 6/20/13, 1:05 PM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: I got 4 out 10.

Embarrassingly poor for someone who has watched so much.; 6/20/13, 1:05 PM
Ann Althouse said...: I got 50%.; 6/20/13, 1:08 PM
Methadras said...: 70% for me.; 6/20/13, 1:09 PM
Methadras said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 6/20/13, 1:09 PM
Ann Althouse said...: And I didn't guess.; 6/20/13, 1:09 PM
Ann Althouse said...: It would be really hard to actually know the rule in these situations. You have to try to intuit the rule from the rules that you already know and from some sort of reasoning about what the rule should be.

I recommend reading the problem and arguing about it with other people before trying to answer... brainstorming. That would draw out the problems.

Trying to read through it all quickly and answering without talking to anyone -- which is what I did -- is probably not going to work very well.; 6/20/13, 1:12 PM
Known Unknown said...: 5/10.; 6/20/13, 1:17 PM
Unknown said...: 2/10; 6/20/13, 1:20 PM
john said...: Well, if I was batting, I would consider 300 to be pretty dang good.; 6/20/13, 1:25 PM
Tank said...: 6 right, but I would not have bet money on any of my answers.; 6/20/13, 1:36 PM
traditionalguy said...: 80%.

The two visits during one batter with an intervening pitcher change was a knuckleball.

And who the heck says a popped up bunt is not an infield fly? I appeal to Caesar!; 6/20/13, 1:50 PM
NitneLiun said...: I've actually attended a Major League game in which the infield pop-up on the bunt happened. Still picked the wrong answer.; 6/20/13, 1:54 PM
David said...: I batted 400!; 6/20/13, 1:55 PM
Nomennovum said...: I'm better than average!; 6/20/13, 2:20 PM
fivewheels said...: 9/10. The balk one got me.

In college, I took "Coaching Baseball" from the University's baseball coach. But it wasn't a joke course for jocks, not quite. We had a rule-book test that was pretty tough. I'm disappointed I got one wrong here.; 6/20/13, 2:29 PM
Jason said...: I felt bad about my 3 of 10 because I coached young pitchers for several years. Until I looked at other peoples' scores.

Interesting test design, in that theoretically, someone with zero knowledge of the game should get 50 percent and a lot of people who know a lot about baseball... or THOUGHT they knew a lot about baseball... got 2-4 right!; 6/20/13, 2:36 PM
Meade said...: I thought I would do better than 50% but I didn't.; 6/20/13, 2:40 PM
Ann Althouse said...: "A runner can assist another runner as long as he did not score or was already put out. A runner can actually carry a teammate around the bases."

Did you know that?!; 6/20/13, 2:49 PM
madAsHell said...: 3 for 10, but I now remember why I don't follow baseball.; 6/20/13, 3:12 PM
donald said...: I got em all. Course that's what I do, and I got a book.

I've never seen any of these happen.; 6/20/13, 3:29 PM
fivewheels said...: "A runner can actually carry a teammate around the bases."

Did you know that?!"

I feel like Yogi Berra did that once. I'm pretty sure there was some incident in the '50s, goofing around after a game-winning home run. I couldn't google it right up though.; 6/20/13, 3:40 PM
Beach Brutus said...: 3 for 10 - and two of those were "Tipsy Coachman".; 6/20/13, 4:08 PM
SJL said...: I got 40%, but mostly guessed.; 6/20/13, 4:25 PM
Michael said...: I am not that big of a fan and lucked into 50%; 6/20/13, 4:47 PM
Mark said...: I thought I'd do better than 20%, but considering the average apparently rounds to 0% I'm not too demoralized.

(The only ones I knew for sure about were the only ones I got right. I guess that means my baseball logic does need work.); 6/20/13, 5:01 PM
ndspinelli said...: I love baseball and know a lot about it. But these weird play/rules quizzes are for nerds who never played the game..or umpires.; 6/20/13, 5:06 PM
Baron Zemo said...: There is only rule that everyone should know about baseball.

Boston sucks.; 6/20/13, 5:43 PM
gpm said...: "A runner can actually carry a teammate around the bases."

It's been a very long time, but I seem to recall this as being a critical plot point at the climax of "A Pennant for the Kremlin," a novel written some 50 years ago by a Chicago sports writer named (I think) Paul Malloy. About a cranky old guy who owned the White Sox and left the team to the Soviet Union when he died (Go White Sox!). I can't quite remember, but there may have been an issue about whether the carrier passed the carriee before picking him up, which maybe resulted in an out.

--gpm; 6/20/13, 7:45 PM
gpm said...: Oh, yeah, I got 4 out of 10, which seemed pretty bad until I saw how everybody else did.

And I totally agree that a 20-foot high "bunt" should be an infield fly!

--gpm; 6/20/13, 7:47 PM
mariner said...: I knew before I took this test I didn't know jack about baseball.

After the test, I still knew I didn't know jack about baseball.

3/10; 6/20/13, 8:33 PM
Mr. D said...: I got six. I'll take that.; 6/20/13, 8:33 PM
mariner said...: I knew before I took this test I didn't know jack about baseball.

After the test, I still knew I didn't know jack about baseball.

3/10; 6/20/13, 8:33 PM
PWS said...: Is Ann a baseball fan?

How about more baseball posts!?; 6/20/13, 8:42 PM
Old RPM Daddy said...: I plated six out of ten, but that was luck, by and large. I'm not that well versed in all the rules. But I do know that the Nats managed to win two games in a row, which may be no more than what we can hope for this season.; 6/21/13, 7:22 AM
SeanF said...: I got 7 right, but a couple I just didn't read carefully enough - like the Twins one, where the fact that there were two outs is an important difference.

Ann Althouse: "A runner can assist another runner as long as he did not score or was already put out. A runner can actually carry a teammate around the bases."

Did you know that?!

I did not. That's one I legitimately got wrong.; 6/21/13, 3:59 PM