In rare cases, baseball games are forfeited, usually when a team is no longer able to play. Although not uncommon in baseball's early days, forfeits are now rare. There have been only five forfeits in Major League Baseball (MLB) since 1954; the last forfeit was in 1995, and prior to that, 1979. Since 1914, there has only been one incident where a team deliberately made a decision to forfeit a game, by the 1977 Baltimore Orioles.[1]
In the event of forfeiture in Major League Baseball (MLB), the score is recorded as 9–0, as stated in rule 2.00 of the Official Baseball Rules issued by the league.[2] The 9–0 score equates to one run per each regulation game inning not played. Actual game statistics are recorded as they stand at the time of the forfeit; the game is recorded as a loss in the standings for the forfeiting team and a win for the other team, even if the forfeiting team is ahead at that point. Leagues with seven-inning games, such as high school baseball or softball, generally award a rule-based score of 7–0. The same is true for Little League Baseball, per Rule 2.00, under the definition of "Forfeit", there is one run allocated per inning, resulting in scores of 6–0 or 7–0, depending on the division. If a game is already official (in an MLB game, this means if five innings were played, or 4+1⁄2 innings if the home team is ahead) and the non-forfeiting team is ahead, then pitchers are credited for a win and loss using the same criteria as if the game were called for any other reason (such as weather); otherwise, no pitcher will be credited for a win, nor charged with a loss.
In college baseball, the NCAA has the authority to retroactively vacate results if the winning team is found to have violated NCAA rules; however although this is sometimes considered a retroactive "forfeiture" by fans and media, this is not actually the case, as for the losing team the loss is not retroactively changed to a win. The vacating of results is pursuant to a general NCAA rule that is not exclusive to baseball. In the NCAA, regardless of the sport, wins are usually vacated retroactively as a consequence of recruiting violations, if players or teams are caught violating the NCAA's strict rules regarding amateurism or if one or more players are otherwise found to have been ineligible to play for some reason. Retroactive forfeiture can happen for Little League World Series games, and occurred following the 1992 and 2014 events, in both cases after the offending teams were found to have fielded players in violation of age or residency restrictions.
In the early days of the major leagues, forfeits were not rare. In 1871, six games were forfeited in two months. There was at least one forfeit almost every year from 1882 until 1909. 1884 saw forfeits in the double digits, many because one team failed to appear for a game or refused to continue playing. Game 2 of the 1885 World Series was forfeited when St. Louis pulled its team from the field to protest the umpiring.[3] There were five forfeits in the National League in 1886.
Sometimes teams would forfeit games if they lacked enough players to take the field. During the 19th century, major league club rosters were typically much smaller than today since owners were often reluctant to spend more than absolutely necessary on payroll. Moreover, the fastest means of communication and transportation between cities was telegraph and railroad respectively, thus teams often could not replace players who became unavailable for whatever reason for several days. In addition, prior to the 20th century it was not uncommon for businessmen to outright own more than one team (or at least to have financial interests in multiple teams), obvious conflicts of interest that would later be prohibited. Often, such owners would unscrupulously transfer players from a weaker team to a stronger one, sometimes without regard to whether the weaker team would have enough players to play upcoming games. Particularly if the team was also floundering at the gate, ownership interests sometimes disregarded such considerations and forfeited one or more game(s).
The high rate of forfeits slowed after 1910, with one forfeit every few years. Game 7 of the 1934 World Series was in jeopardy of being forfeited when Detroit Tigers fans began showering the outfield with debris after St. Louis Cardinals left fielder Joe Medwick slid hard into Tigers third baseman Marv Owen. A potential blemish to the Series was averted when Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis ordered both Medwick and Owen replaced in the one-sided game.[4]
In games that were played before the advent of stadium lighting (and/or were subject to a relatively early curfew), forfeits were also sometimes declared as a result of a team's stalling tactics. A baseball game scheduled for nine innings is not official until five innings have been completed, or 4+1⁄2 innings if the home team is winning. Consequently, a team that was behind by a considerable number of runs before the end of the fifth inning might deliberately slow down the game, in the hopes that darkness or the curfew would come before the game was declared official—this was because for most of baseball history, games ended before becoming official were re-played from the beginning at a later date. Such deliberate attempts to slow down play are subject to a forfeiture being declared. The last such major-league incident took place in 1954. On July 18, the visiting Philadelphia Phillies were leading the hometown St. Louis Cardinals, 8–1, in the fifth inning of the second game of a doubleheader. With darkness approaching and the game not yet official, Cardinals manager Eddie Stanky brought in three new pitchers in the inning. Umpire Babe Pinelli, citing an unnecessary delay of the game on the part of the Cardinals, forfeited the game to the Phillies.[5] Starting with the 2020 season, MLB now more broadly uses suspended games, to avoid re-playing games from the beginning.[6]
There are three known instances when MLB games were initially ruled a forfeit by umpires but the ruling was later overturned.[7] Each occurred in the latter part of the season, in 1913 (later played to completion),[8] in 1918 (doubleheader left unplayed),[9] and in 1939 (set to be played to completion, but rained out and left as a tie).[10] None had an effect on the postseason.
Forfeits have become extremely rare in MLB. The advent of night baseball eliminated the use of stalling tactics to beat the sunset, and any curfews still in force are much more lenient than in the past (for example, only prohibiting innings from starting after 1 am, long after a game is likely to be official). In the sort of extraordinary circumstances that would warrant a more stringent curfew in a city scheduled to host MLB games (such as the 1989 World Series earthquake), it is extremely unlikely that MLB would allow the game(s) to be played. In such cases, MLB typically reschedules the game(s) or moves the game(s) to the opponents' stadium or a neutral venue. In one exceptional case when the 2015 Baltimore protests caused local authorities to impose a curfew, MLB satisfied the terms of the curfew by ordering the affected game to be played earlier in the day and without spectators. Finally, major league rosters today are of a standard size with ample personnel to replace sick or injured players, and the modern minor league farm system as well as modern transportation and communication infrastructure allows teams to rapidly replace players unavailable for a longer period, meaning it is extremely unlikely that a team would be unable to play a game due to lack of players. During the COVID-19 pandemic, when teams occasionally had multiple players unable to play without warning, MLB opted for a policy of rescheduling games rather than forcing affected teams to forfeit.
Of the five forfeits that have occurred in the expansion era of baseball (post-1960), all but one have been the result of fans disrupting the game to a point where the stadium staff cannot control them, at which point the home team is forced to forfeit.