Section 8: Safety Considerations
The Official Rules embed several mandatory safety requirements. Rule 2.1.9 and Rule 5.4.2a require every batter, on-deck batter, batter-runner, and runner to wear a double ear-flap helmet meeting WBSC safety specifications; a helmet that is cracked, broken, dented, or altered must be removed from play. Rule 2.4.3 requires the catcher to wear a mask, throat protector, helmet, body protector, and shin guards on every pitch, including while warming up a pitcher, given the catcher's direct exposure to pitched and batted balls.
The double first base described in Rule 5.6 exists specifically to reduce collisions between the batter-runner and the first baseman by giving each a separate portion of the base to use on a play at first. Rule 5.10.3.a.ix rules that a runner is not automatically safe merely for reaching a base; rather, if a defensive player with the ball is waiting to make a tag and the runner remains on their feet and deliberately crashes into that fielder, the runner is out, and if the umpire determines the contact was flagrant, the offending player is ejected from the game.
Rule 2.5.1f requires any cast (plaster, metal, or other hard substance) worn by a player to be adequately covered with soft, taped material and approved by the umpire before play, and Rule 2.5.1g prohibits exposed jewelry or other distracting adornments judged by the umpire to be hazardous or distracting, requiring their removal or covering. Rule 2.4.2 limits cleats to ordinary metal or molded types that do not extend more than 1.9 cm (¾ in.) from the sole or heel and bans hard plastic, nylon, or polyurethane spikes at any level of play; youth and modified fast pitch divisions may not use metal cleats at all. Under Rule 3.6.7, an umpire must suspend play immediately in the case of a serious injury that puts a player in danger, regardless of the state of the live-ball action.