Baseball Rules Trivia
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118 free Baseball Rules trivia questions with answers — sports quiz, new questions added Oct 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 118 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In MLB, 60 feet, 6 inches is the distance from the back point of home plate to what?
The pitching rubber
The pitching rubber has sat there since 1893, when the pitcher's box was scrapped for a slab he must keep his back foot on, five feet farther from the batter than before.
Q 02How long is each side of the square formed by baseball's bases, known as the diamond?
90 feet
90 feet was fixed by a convention of New York clubs in 1857 and has never moved since, even while the pitcher was being pushed farther and farther from the batter.
Q 03On a Little League diamond for 12-and-unders, which distance is 60 feet?
Base to base
Base to base is 60 feet, with the pitcher 46 feet from the plate; a transitional division with 70-foot basepaths bridges the jump to a full-size diamond.
Q 04The infield fly rule was written to stop infielders from doing what?
Dropping a pop-up on purpose
Dropping a pop-up on purpose let an infielder force out runners who had been obliged to hold their bases; with two outs the rule never applies, since no double play is left to steal.
Q 05What happens to the batter when an umpire calls 'infield fly'?
He is out anyway
He is out anyway: the umpire's call alone retires him, which takes the force off the runners, so they may hold their bases or advance at their own risk.
Q 06Which batted ball is exempt from the infield fly rule, however easy the catch?
A popped-up bunt
A popped-up bunt is exempt; on any other easy pop-up the umpire shouts the call while the ball is still in the air, so the runners know at once that they are free to stay put.
Q 07Who introduced the infield fly rule in 1895?
The National League
The National League wrote the rule in 1895 for one-out situations only, so for six more seasons infielders could still pull the same trick with nobody out.
Q 08When a pitcher is called for a balk with men on, what is the penalty?
Every runner advances one base
Every runner advances one base, so a balk with a man on third sends him home without a pitch being thrown, and major league games have ended on exactly that: a game-ending balk.
Q 09Which Hall of Fame left-hander holds the MLB career record for balks, with 90?
Steve Carlton
Steve Carlton tops the opposite list too: while umpires called him for 90 balks, he picked off 144 runners, more than any other pitcher on record.
Q 10Which Oakland pitcher set the single-season record with 16 balks in 1988's 'Year of the Balk'?
Dave Stewart
Dave Stewart was the chief victim of a one-year crackdown: umpires were told to enforce the full stop in the set position strictly in 1988, balk calls soared, and the old wording was back for 1989.
Q 11Which pickoff move became a balk in 2013?
The third-to-first fake
The third-to-first fake, a bluff toward third and a throw to first, had been legal for more than a century; a feint toward second, alone among the bases, is still allowed.
Q 12Who was MLB's first designated hitter, batting for the Yankees against Luis Tiant on the rule's debut day?
Ron Blomberg
Ron Blomberg walked with the bases loaded, so the first designated hitter drove in a run without putting the ball in play, and his bat was sent straight to the Hall of Fame.
Q 13Which manager proposed a designated hitter as early as 1906?
Connie Mack
Q 21MLB enlarged its bases in 2023 mainly to do what?
Prevent collisions
Prevent collisions, the league said: the bases grew from 15 to 18 inches square to give fielders and runners more room around the bag, which also brought the bases a few inches closer together.
Q 22Under MLB's 2023 shift limits, where must every infielder be standing when the pitch is thrown?
Inside the infield boundary
Inside the infield boundary, with two of them on each side of the diamond: the limits were meant to let more ground balls go through for hits, and a team can no longer post an infielder in the outfield either.
Q 23In MLB extra innings, each half-inning now begins with an automatic runner standing where?
Connie Mack's plan for a substitute to bat for the pitcher went nowhere in 1906; the American League finally tried it in 1973 as an experiment and never went back.
Q 14MLB's universal DH arrived in 2022 with a companion rule nicknamed for which star?
Shohei Ohtani
Shohei Ohtani inspired the rule, which lets a starting pitcher stay in the lineup as the DH after he leaves the mound; before it, he had to stop hitting, or move to another position, once he was relieved.
Q 15From 1976 to 1985, the World Series used the designated hitter under what arrangement?
Only in even-numbered years
Only in even-numbered years: both clubs used a DH in every game one October and neither did the next, until 1986 brought the rule of following the home park's league.
Q 16If a club moves its designated hitter into the field mid-contest, what happens?
The team loses its DH
The team loses its DH for the rest of the game: the former DH keeps his place in the order, and the pitcher has to bat in the spot of the fielder who came out.
Q 17MLB's pitch timer allows a pitcher extra seconds in which situation?
With runners on
With runners on, a pitcher got 20 seconds in 2023 and 18 from 2024, against 15 with the bases empty; a pickoff throw or step-off resets the clock, which is why he is allowed only two per batter.
Q 18What is the penalty when a pitcher violates the pitch timer?
An automatic ball
An automatic ball is charged if the pitcher has not started his motion when the clock runs out; the timer was tried in the minor leagues first, where it cut about 26 minutes from the average game.
Q 19Since 2018, MLB has put a per-game cap on which kind of stoppage?
Mound visits
Mound visits were unlimited before 2018, bar one old rule that still stands: a second visit by a manager or coach to the same pitcher in one inning means the pitcher has to come out of the game.
Q 20MLB's 2023 limit of two pickoff attempts per batter revived which tactic?
Stolen bases
Stolen bases: a third pickoff throw that fails now hands the runner the next base for free, and steal attempts climbed wherever the limit was used, first in the minors and then in the majors.
Second base
Second base: the scorer treats the runner as if he had reached on an error, so a pitcher who lets him come home is not charged with an earned run.
Q 24The automatic extra-innings runner is dropped for which MLB games?
The postseason
The postseason plays on without it: the runner exists to shorten regular-season games, while an October game still goes on for as many innings as it takes to find a winner.
Q 25The automatic runner has been nicknamed after which commissioner, with a nod to a 1960s British band?
Rob Manfred
Rob Manfred's runner became the 'Manfred Man', a pun on the band Manfred Mann; the rule came in as a 2020 pandemic stopgap and outlived the emergency, turning permanent in 2023.
Q 26Which player is normally placed on base as the automatic runner?
Whoever bats just before the leadoff hitter
Whoever bats just before the leadoff hitter is placed on base; a manager may send out a pinch-runner instead, but the man he replaces is then out of the game for good.
Q 27Jerome Holtzman, who devised baseball's save statistic, held which job?
Sportswriter
A sportswriter: 'save' had been loose front-office talk in the 1950s for finishing off a win until the newspaperman gave it firm criteria, and baseball made his statistic official in 1969.
Q 28A reliever can earn a save in a blowout by doing what?
Pitching three innings
Pitching three innings or more to finish a win earns a save whatever the score: Wes Littleton was credited with one in 2007 for closing out the Texas Rangers' 30-3 rout of Baltimore.
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
There are two outs: with fewer and a runner on first, a catcher could let the third strike go and turn an easy double play, so in that case the batter is simply out.
Q 30The uncaught third strike rule makes which pitching oddity possible?
Four strikeouts in an inning
Four strikeouts in an inning: the pitcher is credited with a strikeout even when the batter reaches first safely, so the inning carries on, and many big-league pitchers have done it.