Ground rule double

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In baseball, a ground rule double is a term used to describe any fair ball that leaves the playing field, but in a situation where regulations prohibit calling the hit a home run. The most common situation is a ball bouncing fair on the field and then leaving play, however, ground rules exist for various ballparks which provide ground rule doubles in other situations. As the name implies, a ground rule double entitles the batter to two bases.

Some parks have odd playing features that award a double if invoked; the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome, for example, rules that a baseball caught in the Teflon roof is a double. In Fenway Park "a ball going through scoreboard, either on the bound or fly," awards the batter two bases.

In every park, a hit that goes out of play (into the stands or out of the park) just as a home run, but on the bounce, having touched the ground in fair territory is an automatic double as covered by Major League Baseball rule 6.09 sections e, f, g, and h. Such hits are typically referred to as ground rule doubles, which, while not truly a ground rule, has come to be an almost universally understood misnomer and has entered into accepted usage.

Originally, all batted balls that cleared the fence after a bounce in fair territory or on a fly were counted as home runs. The rule was changed for the 1930 American League season and adopted by the National League on December 12, 1930.

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