The Baseball Rules & Official Scoring Trivia Challenge
Scott Orgera · 6×9 paperback
A trivia book for fans who know the devil is in the details. Each
question comes straight from the Official Baseball Rules, and each answer explains
the call and names the rule behind it, so even a wrong guess teaches you
something.
This book is built on the 2026 Official Baseball Rules and
records the rule behind each answer, so later editions can be checked against new
rulebooks, with corrections posted online. It covers the rules the game is played by and the calls that go into the
official record.
Every answer carries an explanation, so readers come away knowing the why
along with the what. Every explanation cites the governing rule, so anyone can check our
work and settle things at the bar. And the book plays like a game, with
questions that climb from Rookie to Veteran to All-Star to Hall of Famer, worth 1, 2, 3
and 5 points, a scorecard at the end of every chapter and one more at the back
for the whole season.
The book also has a sibling. Its starting question bank came from the
Hardball Rules trivia app, whose questions were vetted by working official
scorers, and the app is being rebuilt to relaunch alongside the book. Readers don't
need the app to enjoy the book, but once it's back up and running, each can point
readers to the other.
Structure
Contents
Thirteen chapters follow the rulebook's own topics. In each one, the
questions climb the difficulty ladder, the answers come at the end of each tier, and a
scorecard ends it. The fourteenth, Extra Innings, saves the toughest calls
for last, all of them at the top tier.
14. Extra Innings: The Toughest Callsabout 60 questions
Official scoring: the 5 tagged chapters come
entirely from Rule 9. Add the scoring questions inside Baserunning & Steals and Extra
Innings, and over a third of the questions in the book are about official
scoring.
Plus: a Foreword, an Introduction and How to Play up front; a
Season Scorecard, a Glossary, an Index of Rules Cited and an Achievements list in the
back; and printable scorecards, so the book can be replayed with a clean slate.
The game layer
How to Play
The book keeps score. Every question has a YOUR CALL box, where
the reader pencils in an answer before checking it at the end of the tier. Committing
to an answer is the surest way to find out whether you really know a rule or only think
you do.
Each chapter's scorecard shows a par score, the number to shoot for (about 70
percent of the points you could earn), and your total converts to a rank using the same
four names as the difficulty ladder.
The game is optional. The points, par, YOUR CALL boxes and scorecards could all
come out at the publisher's discretion, and the questions and explanations would still
make a complete traditional trivia book.
Official scoring is the book's largest subject, with over a third of the
questions. Five chapters are nothing but scoring: errors and fielder's choice, earned
runs, hits and RBIs, wins and saves, and statistics and records. Scoring questions also
turn up in Baserunning & Steals and Extra Innings. The rest of the book covers the
playing rules that umpires enforce.
How to Play, page one: making the call, free scorecards, points and par.
Sample chapters
Chapter openers
Each chapter opens with black-and-white artwork made for the book and
a short essay on what those rules are really about. The art is there to set a mood, so
you won't find a diagrammed play, a logo or a player in any of them. All of it was made with generative AI tools as
concepts, and any piece can be changed or replaced.
Errors, Putouts & Assists
The word "error" sounds simple until you have to score one. Most of us know one when we see it, or at least we think we do. Under Rule 9.12, though, an error has little to do with how ugly a play looked. It comes down mostly to two questions. Could ordinary effort have made the play, and did the misplay let a batter or runner stay alive or move up? Fumble the ball and still get your man, and as long as nobody else takes an extra base on the bobble, it isn't an error.
Baserunning & Steals
A runner doesn't always earn the base he's standing on, and he isn't necessarily to blame when he's called out. This chapter covers awarded bases, the runner's duty to touch and return, whether a run counts when the third out is made, and the fine line between a stolen base and defensive indifference.
The Umpire
Rule 8.01(c) lets umpires rule on any point the rulebook doesn't specifically cover, and Rule 8.02(a) makes their judgment calls final. This chapter sorts out who gets to decide what, along with the point at which it's too late to appeal.
Where these come from: every sample below is from the original
Hardball Rules app bank, whose questions were vetted by working official scorers,
and each one has been checked against the 2026 Official Baseball Rules. They're only a
small slice of the book, which runs to 750+ questions, most of them written for
the book itself and held to the same rule-by-rule check.
Runner on second, fewer than two outs. The shortstop cleanly fields a grounder and could easily retire the batter-runner at first with ordinary effort, but instead throws to third, where the runner beats the throw. What is the ruling for the batter?
A. Base hit
B. Error on the shortstop
C. Batter isn't charged with an at-bat
D. Fielder's choice
AnswerD — Fielder's choice
Fielder's choice. There was no physical misplay, and the shortstop had a sure out at first, so Rule 9.05(b)(4) denies the hit. There's no error either. Choosing the wrong base, on its own, isn't charged as one under the Comment to Rule 9.12(a)(1).
One out, runner on first breaking for second. The batter swings through strike three and unintentionally hits the catcher on the backswing. What's the ruling?
A. The batter is out, and the runner can't advance
B. The batter is out, and the runner goes to second
C. A strike, and the runner takes second
D. It counts as a foul ball, and the runner can't advance
AnswerA — The batter is out, and the runner can't advance
Batter out, runner stays put. With first base occupied and fewer than two out, strike three retires the batter whether or not the catcher holds it (Rule 5.09(a)(3)). The backswing contact is a strike only, not interference (Comment to Rules 6.03(a)(3) and (4)), and the ball is dead.
Rule 6.03(a)(3) and (4) Comment · Rule 5.09(a)(3)
A batter bats out of turn and reaches base. To get the proper batter declared out, when must the defense appeal?
A. After the completion of the next at-bat
B. Before the next pitch, play or attempted play
C. At the end of the inning
D. Before the improper batter comes up again
AnswerB — Before the next pitch, play or attempted play
Before the next pitch, play or attempted play. Rule 6.03(b)(3) sets a short window: before a pitch to the next hitter on either side and before any play or attempted play. Miss it (Rule 6.03(b)(5) and the Comment to 6.03(b)(7)) and the improper batter's at-bat becomes legal, so whatever he did stands.
Before a regular-season game that isn't the second game of a doubleheader, at what point does the umpire take over the decision on whether a game is called off because of weather?
A. First pitch
B. When the umpires walk onto the field before the game
C. Right after the home team's lineup card is presented
D. After five innings are played
AnswerC — Right after the home team's lineup card is presented
When the home team's lineup card is presented. Rule 4.03(e) hands the field to the umpires the moment it reaches the plate umpire, and from then on the umpire-in-chief decides whether play is halted, called off or resumed for rain or field conditions. The rule has two exceptions: clubs keep their filed lightning and severe-weather policies, and MLB does not apply it in the postseason. Before that handoff, Rule 4.04(a) leaves the call to the home club, except for the second game of a doubleheader, which Rule 4.04(b) hands to the first game's umpire-in-chief.
Rule 4.03(e) · Rule 4.04(a) · Rule 4.04(b)
Tie game, bottom of the ninth, runner on second. The batter hits a fair ball down the line that bounces into the stands. The runner scores, and the batter touches first and leaves the field. What does the batter get for his effort?
A. Single, RBI
B. Double, RBI
C. Single, no RBI
D. Batter is called out because he left the field before touching second
AnswerA — Single, RBI
Single, RBI. Rule 9.06(f) credits a game-ending hit with only as many bases as the winning run advanced (here, two), and only if the batter runs out that many himself. He stopped at first, so it's a single, with an RBI for plating the winning run.
In a lengthy rundown, the shortstop throws the ball three times, then tags the runner out himself. How many assists does the official scorer credit to the shortstop?
A. 1
B. 2
C. 3
D. 4
AnswerA — 1
One. Rule 9.10(a)(1) allows each fielder a single assist in a rundown that ends in a putout, however many throws he makes. The shortstop also gets the putout for the tag.
Rule 9.10(a)(1) · Rule 9.09(a)(3)
Scoring
Scorecards
Every chapter ends with a box-score-style scorecard with three player
columns, a par score to reach and a rank ladder. One more at the back turns the whole
book into one long season, and both come as free printable sheets, so the
book holds up to more than one go-round.
Chapter
scorecard, printable edition
Season
scorecard: all chapters, one rank
The physical book
Cover & formats
The paperback wrap (back cover, spine and front) is built to print
specification at 6×9, with the spine sized to the current draft.
Concept cover. The full draft is already laid out at print size.
The current draft runs about 440 pages, and the length, question
total and artwork are all subject to change in editing. The write-in scorecards also
come as free printable sheets, so the game works in any format the publisher
chooses.
Foreword
Foreword by the man who keeps the official record
Howie Karpin, the senior Major League
Baseball official scorer in New York, who has scored Yankees and Mets games for over
25 years, has agreed to write the foreword.
Official scoring is the book's largest subject, so it's only fitting that the
foreword comes from the man whose rulings become the statistics in the sport's largest
market. A 45-year sports media veteran, Karpin has been an update
anchor at SiriusXM Sports since 2008 and is the author or co-author of 14
books.
Beyond the foreword, the author has longtime connections with current and former
major league players and plans to secure a cover blurb from a well-known name in the
game.
Accuracy
Built to be checked
A rules book that blows a call isn't worth much, so every answer here
is written so readers can look it up and check the reasoning themselves.
Every question cites the rule that governs it, and a reader who thinks the book got
one wrong is told exactly where to go to settle it.
The starting bank came from the Hardball Rules app, where the questions were
written and vetted by working official scorers. Every question, that original bank
included, has been checked against the 2026 Official Baseball Rules. Within
90 days of signing with a publisher, major and minor league official scorers will
review the full bank, and an umpire will check the playing-rules chapters.
The rulebook is amended every year, so the edition each answer was checked against
is on record, and the book can be updated right along with it.
The author
Scott Orgera
Scott Orgera is a sportswriter and statistician with over three decades of experience,
including 25 seasons as a reporter for STATS and work as an MLB.com datacaster. He's a
member of the Baseball Writers' Association of America and co-wrote 976-1313: How
Sports Phone Launched Careers and Broke New Ground with Howie Karpin. His bylines
include the Associated Press, Baseball America and Sports Illustrated.
