The Unwritten Rules of Baseball: The Etiquette, Conventional Wisdom, and Axiomatic Codes of Our National Pastime

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The Unwritten Rules of Baseball: The Etiquette, Conventional Wisdom, and Axiomatic Codes of Our National Pastime

by Paul Dickson

3.30 · rating details · 37 ratings · 7 reviews

From beanballs to basebrawls, the most important rules governing the game of baseball have never been officially written down--until now.

They have no sanction from the Commissioner, appear nowhere in any official publication, and are generally not posted on any clubhouse wall. They represent a set of time-honored customs, rituals, and good manners that show a respect fo

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Hardcover, 244 pages

Published March 24th 2009 by Collins (first published March 11th 2009)

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Jun 03, 2011

Steven Peterson rated it

This is a book about the unwritten rules of baseball. For those steeped in the sport, many of these will be familiar. Nonetheless, a nice little volume. The author, at the outset, says (Page xii): "I am convinced that the game runs on a code of behavior, a set of beliefs and assumptions and practices that gives it both strength and character. . . ."

Some examples of rules from a player's perspective: "The clubhouse is a sanctuary"; "Do not criticize a teammat...more

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Jul 29, 2011

Kelly rated it

There's no overarching narrative going on here, which is what I'd want from any book that tries to tackle such a complex and interesting code, but if you're both sufficiently interested in baseball and enough of a rookie that you're not actually sure, say, at what point it's no longer okay to swing at a 3-0 pitch, this is a fun coffee-table kind of read.

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Jan 19, 2012

Bennyr is currently reading it

The Unwritten Rules of Baseball is a very interesting baseball book. It talks about baseball rules that are not official, however they are asumed. These rules can relate to baseball etiquette or strategy. It talks about ways to bend these rules or even break them completely.

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Apr 16, 2011

Katie rated it

Shelves: books-read-in-2011

I bought this for my sister and decided to read it before giving it to her. It's an interesting read, but, if you're a baseball fan, you probably already know this stuff and, if you're not a baseball fan . . . you probably won't be interested.

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Mar 29, 2011

Mokieblylk rated it

As a big baseball fan, not much stuff you shouldn't already know, but it does have some interesting notes on umpires, sports reporters, and old time baseball quotes.

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Mar 20, 2011

Kathy rated it

I learned that base runners often don't touch second as they round the bases. It's too dangerous! When an umpire is hit by a pitch, the catcher will find a way to take a moment so the ump can recover, by visiting the mound, calling for a new ball, or fiddling with his mitt [witnessed this on TV, Yankees v. Red Sox, last Sunday]. [I saw that the pitcher may step off the mound for a moment, too.] Mr. Dickson also wrote a baseball dictionary (recently published a new edition), which scored a home r...more

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Jan 04, 2012

Tommy rated it

LOVED this book, only for those who have a passion for the game tho

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Feb 07, 2012

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Shelves: nonfiction, baseball

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About Paul Dickson

Paul Dickson is the author of more than 45 nonfiction books and hundreds of magazine articles. Although he has written on a variety of subjects from ice cream to kite flying to electronic warfare, he now concentrates on writing about the American language, baseball and 20th century history.

Dickson, born in Yonkers, NY, graduated from Wesleyan University in 1961 and was honored a...morePaul Dickson is the author of more than 45 nonfiction books and hundreds of magazine articles. Although he has written on a variety of subjects from ice cream to kite flying to electronic warfare, he now concentrates on writing about the American language, baseball and 20th century history.

Dickson, born in Yonkers, NY, graduated from Wesleyan University in 1961 and was honored as a Distinguished Alumnae of that institution in 2001. After graduation, he served in the U.S. Navy and later worked as a reporter for McGraw-Hill Publications.
Since 1968, he has been a full-time freelance writer contributing articles to various magazines and newspapers, including Smithsonian, Esquire, The Nation, Town & Country, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and The Washington Post and writing numerous books on a wide range of subjects.
He received a University Fellowship for reporters from the American Political Science Association to do his first book, Think Tanks (1971). For his book The Electronic Battlefield (1976), about the impact automatic weapons systems have had on modern warfare, he received a grant from the Fund for Investigative Journalism to support his efforts to get certain Pentagon files declassified.

His book The Bonus Army: An American Epic, written with Thomas B. Allen,was published by Walker and Co on February 1, 2005. It tells the dramatic but largely forgotten story of the approximately 45,000 World War I veterans who marched on Washington in the summer of 1932, at the height of the Great Depression, to demand early payment of a bonus promised them for their wartime service and of how that march eventually changed the course of American history and led to passage of the GI Bill-- the lasting legacy of the Bonus Army. A documentary based on the book aired on PBS stations in May 2006 and an option for a feature film based on the book has been sold.
Dickson's most recent baseball book, The Hidden Language of Baseball: How Signs and Sign Stealing Have Influenced the Course of our National Pastime, also by Walker and Co, was first published in May, 2003 and came out in paperback in June, 2005. It follows other works of baseball reference including The Joy of Keeping Score, Baseballs Greatest Quotations, Baseball the Presidents Game and The New Dickson Baseball Dictionary, now in it's second edition. A third edition is currently in the works. The original Dickson Baseball Dictionary was awarded the 1989 Macmillan-SABR Award for Baseball Research.
Sputnik: the Shock of the Century, another Walker book, came out in October, 2001 and was subsequently issued in paperback by Berkeley Books. Like his first book, Think Tanks (1971), and his latest, Sputnik was born of his first loveinvestigative journalism. Dickson is working on a feature documentary about Sputnik with acclaimed documentarians David Hoffmanand Kirk Wolfinger.
Two of his older language books, Slang and Label For Locals came out in the fall of 2006 in new and expanded versions.

Dickson is a founding member and former president of Washington Independent Writers and a member of the National Press Club. He is a contributing editor at Washingtonian magazine and a consulting editor at Merriam-Webster, Inc and is represented by Premier Speakers Bureau, Inc. and the Jonathan Dolger Literary agency.
He currently lives in Garrett Park, Maryland with his wife Nancy who works with him as his first line editor, and financial manager."(less)

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Books by Paul Dickson

The Joy of Keeping Score: How Scoring the Game Has Influenced and Enhanced the History of Baseball

Baseball's Greatest Quotations: From Walt Whitman to Dizzy Dean, Garrison Keillor to Woody Allen, a Treasury of Over 50000 Quotations

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