In baseball, the rules were not being 'changed' they were just being applied inconsistently because of human limitations. The umpire (or is it referee in baseball) is just another player - human and error-prone. When 'he' (is there a 'she'?) becomes a faultless, indisputable 'it', then that part of the game is lost.

Even in chess, these problems exist. Think of Bobby Fischer moaning about the cameras in 1972.