The Infield Fly Aside and the Legal Entertainment

Abstract

The staid and sober world of academic law reviews was rocked in 1975 by publication of "The Common Law Origins of the Infield Fly Rule." The "Aside," written by University of Pennsylvania student Will Stevens, has long been celebrated by lawyers and baseball aficionados alike on its purported subject. It also unleashed a steady stream of gently humorous articles that nonetheless offer serious commentary on other game-like aspects of the law and society.

This foreword to the republication of the Aside, in the 2010 "Baseball and the Law" edition of the Green Bag Almanac and Reader, recalls that many works of literature can be entertaining as well as thought-provoking. The foreword defines the "legal entertainment" and identifies the features that are common and distinctive for this species of law review prose in comparison with other genres.

Keywords: baseball, infield fly rule, entertainment, law review