Michael A. Morse. All-New Baseball Brain Teasers. New York: Sterling, 2006. Print.

This book is fun. Yes, there are sixty “brain teasers” in All-New Baseball Brain Teasers, but not the usual type that we see in puzzle pages: e.g., how many trips does the ferry man make so the fox and hen are never alone or some list logic puzzle. There are questions about unusual plays in baseball and how the rules tell the umpire what to call.

One set of questions, for example, discuss the balk. Who really understands what a balk is? Other than some umpires? A pitcher throws a ball (i.e., not a strike), the batter does not swing, but the catcher has set up with one foot outside the catcher’s box. A pitcher fakes a throw to third base and then throws to first on a pick-off attempt. Are these balks?

Morse explains the ins and outs of the infield fly rule. It only applies when there are fewer than two outs and runners on base. What if the ball gets carried by the wind after the umpire has already called an infield fly?

There are a number of questions having to do with foul balls vs. fair balls and foul balls vs. foul tips. We know that a baserunner cannot advance on a foul ball. Is he free to steal on a foul tip?

Morse also does a pretty good job explaining the murky rules concerning interference. All examples in the book come from actual professional baseball games—two or three from the minor leagues are mentioned in passing, but all the puzzles come from actual major league games. One example is the famous “purse slap” by Alex Rodriguez in the 2004 Championship Series against Boston. While the book was published before 2013, reading what the rules say about interference may give some closure to the 2013 World Series game that ended when a Cardinal runner was awarded home after he had been tagged out. It was weird, the interference was certainly unintentional, but according to the rules, the umpires got it right. And what about umpire, fan, animal, and bird interference?

There are many such instances in this book. I some ways it is simply an entertaining collection of stories worth reading. In the long run, it could save baseball fans a lot of heartburn if they have a handle on these exceptional rules. Oh, and the umpire is always right.

One slight caveat. As a young Pittsburgh Pirate fan in 1960, I first learned about media bias when the Most Valuable Player of the World Series award was given to a member of the losing team. How could that be? What about Haddix, Law, Clemente, and especially Mazeroski? I remember somebody telling me that the other team was from New York and the press always favors New York. It is very clear that Morse is a Yankee fan, too, but in all fairness, he admits this on the first page, so his honesty helps us accept this obvious bias.