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70 free Baseball Rules trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This baseball rule trivia quiz is for anyone who has ever argued about the infield fly rule at a barbecue. It covers the rulebook itself rather than records: the distances and dimensions of the field, what a balk actually is, when a batter can run on a dropped third strike, why the foul poles are in fair territory, and how the designated hitter spread from a 1973 American League experiment to every game. The modern rules get their own stretch: the 2023 pitch timer and its penalties, the two-disengagement limit, the bigger bases, the shift restrictions, the automatic extra-innings runner and the manager's replay challenge. There are also questions on the specs of the ball and bat, the pine tar limit that cost George Brett a home run, obstruction, interference, and how Little League, high school, the World Baseball Classic and Japan's NPB do things differently. Difficulty runs from rules every fan knows to expert calls that only umpires get right. Every answer has been checked against the Official Baseball Rules, MLB.com's rules glossary or Wikipedia's articles on the individual rules, and each question quotes the sentence that supports it.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01How far is the front of the pitcher's rubber from the rear point of home plate?
60 feet, 6 inches
The extra half-foot has been in place since 1893, when the pitcher's box was replaced by a rubber slab.
Q 02The bases form a square called the diamond. How long is each side?
90 feet
Because the bases sit inside the corners, the actual distance between successive bags is closer to 88 feet.
Q 03In Little League Baseball for players 12 and under, how far apart are the bases?
60 feet
The smaller diamond keeps a 12-year-old's throw from third to first roughly as hard as a big-leaguer's.
Q 04The infield fly rule can only be invoked with runners on first and second (or bases loaded) and how many outs?
Fewer than two
With two outs there is no double-play trap to prevent, so the rule is unnecessary.
Q 05An umpire calls 'infield fly' and the ball drops untouched. What happens to the batter?
He is out anyway
The runners, meanwhile, may stay put or advance at their own risk, and they do not have to tag up.
Q 06Which of these batted balls can never be declared an infield fly?
A popped-up bunt
Line drives are excluded too; the rule exists only for lazy pop-ups an infielder could catch with ordinary effort.
Q 07Who introduced the infield fly rule in 1895?
The National League
The junior circuit did not exist yet; it began play as a major league in 1901.
Q 08When a pitcher is called for a balk with men on, what is the penalty?
Every runner advances one base
With nobody on base, most balk-type violations are simply called a ball instead.
Q 09Which Hall of Fame left-hander holds the MLB career record for balks, with 90?
Steve Carlton
Lefties get called for more balks because their pickoff move to first is made facing the runner.
Q 10Which Oakland pitcher set the single-season record with 16 balks in 1988's 'Year of the Balk'?
Dave Stewart
He still won 21 games that year and started Game 1 of the World Series.
Q 11The 'fake to third, throw to first' pickoff move has been ruled a balk since which season?
2013
The move almost never fooled anyone, and the rule change ended a running joke among fans.
Q 12Who was MLB's first designated hitter, batting for the Yankees against Luis Tiant on the rule's debut day?
Ron Blomberg
He walked with the bases loaded in his first plate appearance, and his bat went straight to the Hall of Fame.
Q 13In which year did the American League adopt the designated hitter?
1973
The AL had adopted it as a three-year experiment to boost offense; it never went away.
Q 21MLB enlarged its bases in 2023. How many inches square did they become?
18
The change shaved a few inches off the sprint between bases and was sold mainly as a safety measure.
Q 22Under the shift limits, what must be true of all four infielders when the pitcher is on the rubber?
Inside the infield boundary
Infielders also may not swap sides of the bag, so a shortstop cannot sneak over to play second.
Q 23In regular-season extra innings, each half-inning begins with an automatic runner standing where?
2nd base
The rule was borrowed from international tournaments, where it had been used since 2008.
Q 14The DH became universal across MLB, used by both leagues, starting in which season?
2022
The NL had used a DH in the shortened 2020 season as a one-off before making it permanent.
Q 15From 1976 to 1985, the World Series used the designated hitter under what arrangement?
Only in even-numbered years
From 1986 the DH was used only when the AL club was the home team, until the universal DH made the question moot.
Q 16If a club moves its designated hitter into the field mid-contest, what happens?
The team loses the DH for the rest of the game
The pitcher (or another player) then has to take the vacated spot in the batting order.
Q 17Under MLB's pitch timer introduced in 2023, how many seconds does a pitcher have with the bases empty?
15
The clock started at 20 seconds with runners on and was trimmed to 18 for 2024.
Q 18What is the penalty when a pitcher violates the pitch timer?
An automatic ball
The batter is punished the other way, with an automatic strike, if he is not ready in time.
Q 19Under the pitch timer, the batter must be in the box and alert with how many seconds left on the clock?
8
Marcus Stroman committed the first regular-season pitcher violation on Opening Day 2023.
Q 20How many disengagements (pickoff throws or step-offs) is a pitcher allowed per plate appearance?
Two
A failed further attempt costs a base, which is a big reason stolen bases jumped in 2023.
Q 24The automatic extra-innings runner is NOT used in which MLB games?
The postseason
October games can still run as long as it takes, which is how the 18-inning marathons happen.
Q 25The automatic runner has been nicknamed after which commissioner, with a nod to a 1960s British band?
Rob Manfred
The rule arrived in 2020 as a pandemic measure and was made permanent in 2023.
Q 26Which player is normally placed on base as the automatic runner?
Whoever bats just before the leadoff hitter
A team may substitute a pinch-runner, but that player then replaces the original in the lineup.
Q 27The save became an official MLB statistic in which year?
1969
Sportswriter Jerome Holtzman had dreamed it up a decade earlier to give relievers a stat of their own.
Q 28A save for pitching only the final inning requires entering with a lead of at most how many runs?
Three
A pitcher can also earn one with a bigger lead by working three innings, which is how blowout saves happen.
Q 29On an uncaught third strike, the batter may run to first if it is unoccupied, or in which other situation?
There are two outs
With two outs and a runner on first, the catcher can simply step on the plate for the force.
Q 30Thanks to the uncaught third strike rule, how many strikeouts can a pitcher record in a single inning?
Four
The pitcher is credited with a strikeout even when the batter reaches base safely.