Federal Judiciary

A Sad Day

• The Infield Fly Rule is neither a rule of law nor one of equity; it is a rule of baseball. Since the 1890's it has been a part of the body of the official rules of baseball. In its inquiry into the common law origins of the rule, this Aside does not seek to find a predecessor to the rule in seventeenth-century England. The purpose of the Aside is rather to examine whether the same types of forces that shaped the development of the common law also generated the Infield Fly Rule.

The Common Law Origins of the Infield Fly Rule, 123 Penn L. Rev. 1474 (1975)

Such is the opening to the funniest law review article ever written. The student note was penned by William Stevens, who passed away on Monday at age 60. This law review article was so witty and simultaneously informative that Mr. Stevens earned an obituary in the New York Times. According to the obit: "It continues to be cited by courts and legal commentators. It is taught in law schools. It is credited with giving birth to the law and baseball movement, a thriving branch of legal studies devoted to the law and its social context."

And I'm not kidding about the hilarity either. The first footnote comes after the first word of the piece ("the") and Mr. Stevens felt compelled to reference the page containing the word "the" in the Oxford English Dictionary. The very next time he employs the word "the" he inserts another footnote, which reads: "Note 1, supra."

In a footnote about the origins for common law, he writes: "For a discussion of origins, see generally Scopes v. State, 154 Tenn. 105, 289 S.W. 363 (1927); Genesis 1:1-2:9. But see even more generally Epperson v. Arkansas, 393 U.S. 97 (1968); R. Ardrey, African Genesis (1961); C. Darwin, The Descent of Man (1871); C. Darwin, The Origin of Species (1859)."

And his summary of the history of the infield fly rule in baseball is simply fantastic. As a huge baseball fan myself, I am amazed that Mr. Stevens actually looked at articles from the 1893 Baltimore Sun to do his research.

In short, I could run my mouth on this blog for a hundred years and never come close to penning something this irreverent and insightful. If you have Lexis or Westlaw, please look up this unique piece of scholarship!

Full post as published by Supreme Dicta on December 12, 2008 (boomark / email).