Best Rules in Sports

ESPN.com recently discussed their least favorite rules in sports (e.g. “Fumble was caused by the ground, offensive team will retain the ball”). I’d like to highlight my top two:

• Baseball: I’m in awe of the dimensions of the baseball field. There’s so much magic in the 90ft from home to first, 60ft 6 inches from the pitcher’s rubber to home distances. On one day you can get a perfect game, and the next can be a 10-9 battle with the exact same set of players. It’s hard to imagine coming up with a better balance.
• Hockey: hockey is unique among the bigger sports in that you can change the active players at any time during the game. Anyone who’s played some hockey knows that a couple of minutes on the ice at full speed and you’re spent. Play a pick-up game with no subs and things slow down dramatically within 10 minutes. But when you have a full bench and players can do 45 seconds and get off, and the flow of the game and speed of the athletes allows them to get on and off reasonably, its an amazing effect. Even games with 10-year olds change on the fly to good effect.