In a very unique and collaborative effort, Major League Baseball and Perfect Game will be hosting the Ways to Play powered by MLB & PG on October 14-15 at Perfect Game Park at LakePoint in Emerson, Georgia. The event will serve as a one-of-a-kind testing ground for progressive pace-of-play rules and will feature some of the best travel teams and players in the country at the 17u age level.
The 16-team field will be comprised of teams from nine different states and will feature eight 2017 Perfect Game All-Americans: Will Banfield, Austin Becker, Joe Gray, Jr., J.T. Ginn, Nicholas Northcut, Bryce Bush, Anthony Seigler and Parker Meadows.
Each game will be played under the following rules developed by MLB and will be in effect throughout the entire weekend:
• Each game will be nine innings in length.
• Three balls will result in a walk for the hitter.
• If a batter takes a called strike the batter will be out.
• No straight or delayed steals will be permitted.
• The batter must keep his foot in the batter’s box at all times.
• There is no throwing the ball around between batters.
• If game is tied after the ninth inning a runner will be placed at second base with one out.
• If game is tied after the 10th inning bases will be loaded with one out.
As most of the athletes competing are committed to four-year colleges, and many more are professional prospects, their reaction and feedback will be interesting and informative, as will that of the coaches and umpires. The impact of these rules on time of game will be examined very closely by many as well. PG and MLB will have extensive coverage of this event on all perfectgame.org, all PG social media platforms and MLB.com.