According to the book “This Day in Baseball,” from David Nemec and Scott Flatow, the 1957 Redlegs (as we were called at the time) apparently were developing a new baserunning strategy under manager Birdie Tebbetts.
On April 20, in a game against the Braves, Reds’ baserunner Johnny Temple purposely let teammate Gus Bell’s grounder hit him to stop a routine double play. Baseball rules would call for Temple to be called out, and Bell would be awarded first base.
Apparently, when a Redlegs play the very next day achieves the same result, a new rule is imposed where umpires may award the defense a double play if the umpire rules the runner intentionally interfered with a batted ball.
Now, that’s HAVOC!!