Sacrifice Fly Rules
Many of you already know that the sacrifice rule has changed
many times in the history of professional baseball. Here are the
changes that have occurred during the 20th century:
-
From 1900 to 1907, sacrifice flies were not counted
-
From 1908 to 1925, a batter who hit a fly ball that scored a
runner from third was credited with a sacrifice, but these
sacrifices were grouped together with sacrifice bunts in one
category called sacrifice hits (SH)
-
From 1926 to 1930, batters were awarded a sacrifice if any
runner advanced on a fly ball, and sacrifice bunts and flies
continued to be grouped together in the SH category
-
From 1931 to 1938, sacrifices were no longer awarded on any fly
balls
-
In 1939, sacrifices were once again credited on fly balls that
scored a runner, but they were still combined with bunts
-
From 1940 to 1953, sacrifice flies were once again
eliminated
-
From 1954 to the present, batters were once again awarded
sacrifices on scoring fly balls, and a new category (sacrifice
flies, or SF) was created to keep them separate from sacrifice
bunts
Starting with version 7, Diamond Mind Baseball enables you to
choose the sacrifice fly rule for a league. The conversion program
automatically assigns a sacrifice fly rule based on the year of the
Era the league is currently assigned to.
To double-check that the correct rule was assigned by the
conversion, or to change the rule for a league, use the Organizer
to view the league rules and select from one of the following
values:
None--for no sacrifice
flies
3rd only, as SH--to credit a SH
on a scoring fly ball
3rd only, as SF--to credit a SF
on a scoring fly ball
Any base, as SH--to credit a SH
on any fly ball that advances a runner
It should be clear that the generous rule in the 1926-30 period
inflated batting averages by quite a few points relative to eras
when sacrifices were awarded only on scoring fly balls or not at
all. Older versions of DMB always used the modern rule, and that
made it more difficult to compare your Diamond Mind results with
real life. With the ability to choose the appropriate sacrifice fly
rule for your league, that becomes much easier.
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