Have you ever struggled to find the rule or regulation that covered a specific situation in Little League baseball or softball? If so, this may be for you.
So what is it exactly?
Essentially, what I have done is taken virtually all the regulations and rules and tried to figure out the associated key phrases. With that, I’ve built an index that allows you to look up one of those phrases and find the corresponding rule(s) and/or regulation(s).
For those of you who haven’t seen this before, this doesn’t replace the rulebooks – it’s just an index. Sorry, you still have to go back to the book once you’ve found the rule number references. What this will do, I hope, is get you to those references faster, and also show you when there are multiple rules that cover a situation. Therefore, I strongly recommend you check ALL the paragraphs when more than one are listed, and also look things up a couple of different ways – I can’t guarantee that I’ve indexed the rules every way that you might try to look them up. (Although I’ve tried.)
The index is available in printed form, and may be downloaded below. In the past, I also published it as a mobile application for both iOS and Android, however I’m no longer able to support those formats. A mobile-friendly web version of the index is under development. Stay tuned for more information about that.
There are three layouts for the printed index. All three contain exactly the same information – they just differ in how the pages are laid out. Here’s a sample page and a key to the abbreviations.
- The “Booklet” form
This version is designed to be printed two-sided (flipped on the SHORT end), and then folded together into a 5.5″ x 8.5″ booklet. Because of this, the page ordering looks very funny when you just view it on the screen using Acrobat, but it works out OK once it’s printed. If you have a duplex-capable printer, I’ve found it usually works correctly if you tell Acrobat to print in Landscape mode. (If you don’t do this, the backs of the pages sometimes come out upside down.) If you don’t have a duplex printer, you can always print the even pages, put the paper back in your printer and then print the odd pages. (Or maybe it’s odd, then even. Every printer is different. Experiment with the first couple of pages and you’ll probably be able to figure it out.) - The “Full page” form
This version is designed to print on 8.5″ x 11″ pages in standard portrait format. It uses a larger font than the booklet format version, so it’s easier to read, but it’s more pages. You can print it one-sided or two-sided as you prefer. - The “Landscape” form
This version is printed using the same font and layout as the booklet version, but is designed to be printed on one-sided paper. It doesn’t fold up neatly into a booklet, but it uses less paper than the full page version. The tradeoff is a smaller font, which makes it more difficult for some people to read.
The information in the index is copyright © 2002-2024, Kevin D. Hunter.
How did it all start?
The idea when I started this in 2002 was to create a simple keyword index into the Little League rules which would be a bit better than than the short one that is in the rulebooks themselves. The rulebook’s organization leaves something to be desired (a matter of history and tradition) so people without an intimate knowledge of it can have difficulty locating the specific rule paragraph(s) relating to a situation. This was supposed to make that process somewhat easier.
I can’t claim that I came up with the original concept – years ago a friend of mine showed me a copy of Jim Evans’ rules index for the OBR, which was so obviously useful that it was the inspiration for this endeavor.
The project got more involved than I expected, but what in life doesn’t? My “simple rules index” has grown to over 60 pages, and, to some extent, has developed a life of its own. As a result, I’ve continued to update it from year to year. I’m flattered that it’s gained some popularity, and has developed fans in a number of places all around the country.
Can I give a copy to…
If you’re a Little League umpire, you’re welcome to a copy of this rules index for your own use. If you’re a league, and want to hand it out to your umpires, managers or coaches, please feel free. For any other use, please ask me – you can use the contact form, or the email address in the index. Particularly, please don’t post copies of the index elsewhere – please link to this page instead. That way the people who use your website can always get to the most recent version of the index.
I couldn’t find…
If you have any suggestions to improve this index, or if you find an error in it, please don’t hesitate to drop me a line at the email address on the inside of the front cover. Even if you don’t have any suggestions, if you find it useful, I would really appreciate hearing from you, if for no other reason than to find out where it has traveled.
Note: iOS is a registered trademarks of Apple, Inc. Android is a trademark of Google, Inc.