the umpiring crew, inspected the bat. Measuring the extent of the pine tar against the 17 inches or 43 centimetres width of home plate, they determined that the amount exceeded that allowed by Rule 1.10(c) of the Major League Baseball rule book, which read that "a bat may not be covered by such a substance more than 18 inches [46 cm] from the tip of the handle." Because of this, the crew determined that Brett's home run constituted an "illegally batted ball," and under the terms of the then-existing provisions of Rule 6.06, any batter who hit an illegally batted ball was automatically called out.