Finally, a sport that has so many similarities between the men’s and women’s rules that they are published together. The NCAA offers rules for both in one publication.

Little League Baseball will not allow anyone to restate their rule regarding baseballs. Maybe that makes it easier for teams to cheat if you have to pay to read the rules. References: Photo – www.derbylittleleague.com

The offense attempts to score runs by hitting a ball thrown by the pitcher with a bat and moving counter-clockwise around a series of four bases: first, second, third, and home plate. A run is scored when a player advances around the bases and returns to home plate.

Billiard Congress of America – World Pool-Billiard Association publishes rules for American-style pool games such as Nine Ball, Eight Ball, Ten Ball, Black Ball and Continuous Pool. The specifications for the balls seem to be consistent among all the games, as long as you play by the American-style rules.

Softball is variation of baseball with a larger ball and smaller field. For the teams playing in NCAA games, Rule 3 covers the ball. So much for the yellow ball simply being a preference.

Golf is a ball sport in which competing golfers use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course using the fewest number of strokes. The golfer with the least number of strokes by the end of the game wins.  The United States Golf Association includes rules for golf balls in Appendix II of their Rules for Golf.

Lacrosse is a team sport that is often played as a contact sport. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh designed to catch and hold the lacrosse ball. Offensively, the objective of the game is to score by shooting the ball into an opponent’s goal, using the lacrosse stick to catch, carry, and pass the ball to do so. Defensively, the objective is to keep the opposing team from scoring and to gain the ball through the use of stick checking and body contact or positioning. The sport consists of four positions: midfield, attack, defense, and goalie.