Major League baseball rules changed: The privilege, previously held only by a pitcher of soiling a ball before it is put into play, was abolished by the joint rules committee of the two leagues. As the rule now stands, a pitcher may not rub a ball on the ground or any portion of his clothing and may only soil it with his hands. It was decided also that “a sacrifice hit shall also be credited to a batsman, who, when no one is out, or when but one man it out, hits a fly ball that is caught but remains in a run being scored.”

50 years ago, 1958

WASHINGTON – Navy officials told New England members of Congress today an overload of work at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard accounted for diversion of work elsewhere. Rear Adm. A. G. Mumma, chief of the Bureau of Ships, had been asked to explain why the shipyard, located at Kittery, Maine, was not assigned one of the three recently designated nuclear-submarine constructions, why some nuclear submarine design work had been transferred to the Electric Boat Corp. at Groton, Conn., and why needed yard modernization had not been undertaken.

25 years ago, 1983

GREENE – The possibility of a rare municipal service – which has been a staple in the neighboring town of Leeds for years – features this year’s town meeting warrant. Article 44 calls for seeing what action the town wishes to take in regard to plowing driveways for senior citizens.

• Owners of property abutting Auburn’s proposed riverfront park were unhappy with the project plans presented to them Friday and suggested several major changes. The riverfront park, to be located on the banks of the Androscoggin River between Longley Memorial Bridge and the Edgewater House, is the final stage in the city’s federally funded downtown redevelopment project. Property owners complained that the plan doesn’t include enough parking spaces, that the park area will be flooded each spring and that the plan doesn’t provide a recreational park as originally proposed.