Understanding Little League’s Pinch Runner Rule

A graduate of the George Washington University Law School, Martin Price recently spent time as chief operating officer and general counsel with Alteon Health in Germantown, Maryland. Beyond his work at Alteon, Martin Price is a member of four state bar associations and several professional organizations. He is also an active supporter of community groups, such as Northwest Little League baseball.in Washington DC.

In baseball, a pinch runner is an offensive player who replaces a teammate that has safely reached a base, effectively taking their place in the game. The Little League ruling on pinch runners is a bit complex, though the overall concept is easy to understand. Generally speaking, a team manager can replace any offensive player on base with another player, so long as the latter is not currently listed in the batting order. There are, however, a few caveats to consider before making a pinch runner substitution.

To begin, managers can only make use of the pinch runner rule once per inning. Similarly, an individual player can only be replaced on base once per game, regardless of any prior substitutions that inning. It should be noted that the pinch runner rule does not remove any player from the game permanently. However, once the substitute bats or takes the field as a defensive player, they can no longer function as a pinch runner and must be subbed out of the game before pinch running for another player.