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I recall that Don Mattingly was forced to remove his pitcher due to two mound meetings in an inning. I've read articles that indicate that a limit was placed on manager-led mound meetings to speed up the game.

The MLB rule reference (8.06):

8.06 A professional league shall adopt the following rule pertaining to the visit of the manager or coach to the pitcher:

(a) This rule limits the number of trips a manager or coach may make to any one pitcher in any one inning;

(b) A second trip to the same pitcher in the same inning will cause this pitcher's automatic removal;

(c) The manager or coach is prohibited from making a second visit to the mound while the same batter is at bat, but

(d) if a pinch-hitter is substituted for this batter, the manager or coach may make a second visit to the mound, but must remove the pitcher. A manager or coach is considered to have concluded his visit to the mound when he leaves the 18-foot circle surrounding the pitcher's rubber.

Are there any historical reasons that caused this rule to be put in place?

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    Arguably, in the Don Mattingly case, he was making a second trip while the same batter was at bat, which should have been prohibited by rule (b) to begin with before rule (c) would have come into effect.
    – Peter Eisentraut
    Commented Feb 24, 2012 at 22:07
  • How long before umpire breaks up meeting at the mound-minutes?
    – user3612
    Commented Apr 27, 2014 at 16:58

3 Answers 3

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The rule is in place so that a manager can't keep coming out and slowing down the game. 1. It annoys everyone 2. He could be intentionally taking his time so that a pitcher in the bullpen can warm up.

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  • Point 2 is very plausible, although paying customers probably would prefer point 1!
    – JW8
    Commented Jul 11, 2012 at 23:10
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This was at least in place when I was a child and first watching baseball games in the mid 1980's. This person says early 1970's. This edition of Baseball Digest from 1986 had the rule listed at the bottom of a page, but I'm not sure if that's to simply convey the rule or to identify rule changes that enacted in the year.

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I don't believe previous editions of the official MLB rules are publicly available, so I was not able to check when this particular rule was first enacted. All I can prove is that it existed as of 2006.

My guess is that this particular rule was added to speed up the pace of the game.

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