Gov. Mark Sanford said he chose the baseball diamond at The Crossings park as the backdrop for a Wednesday afternoon visit to Hilton Head Island to drive home a point about the state Senate.

Baseball, like other sports, works because people must follow the rules. And the state Senate, the Republican governor said, needs a new set of rules to function properly.

"The reason we're standing on a baseball field is because in baseball or any other sport ... there are a set of rules that work," said Sanford, who was flanked by two local Republican lawmakers, state Sen. Scott Richardson and state Rep. JoAnne Gilham. "Right now we have a real dysfunction in the set of rules."

Speaking in Charleston earlier in the day, Sanford used a horse and buggy as a prop illustrate his opinion that the state senate rules are outdated -- from the age of the horse and buggy. What the state needs, he said, are rules for the 21st century.

Sanford said one he would like to see changed is when a filibuster can take place in the senate. Filibusters now are allowed at any stage of the process, essentially giving every state senator a more powerful veto than the governor, he said.

Richardson said five or six senators were abusing the process regularly, unnecessarily stalling or even killing legislation, sometimes even when it enjoys strong support. Examples cited include a cigarette tax and a primary seat-belt law, which would allow law-enforcement officers to pull over a car for a seat-belt violation.

Sanford is pushing for the filibuster change so it can be decided in the first day of the 2005 legislative session, when it could pass with a mere 50 percent majority rather than the two-thirds majority that would be required later.

Sanford announced a "contract for change" on Oct. 12 in which he underscored five legislative priorities. Since then, he has traveled around the state to illustrate his agenda for restructuring the state government, lowering income taxes, promoting school vouchers and establishing tort reform.

On Wednesday the lawmakers also discussed bobtailing, a process in which a separate issue is tacked on as an amendment to a bill under consideration. Richardson said bobtailing allows issues to become law without enough debate or going through subcommittees.

"We're having to be very careful with that right now," he said. "You've gotta be able to amend bills in the process."

In June, however, it was Richardson who tacked a 20-percent reassessment cap onto another tax-related bill to bypass a procedural hold-up. The bill, which limits increases when properties are reassessed every five years, found overwhelming support in the House, passing 104-5. It stalled in the Senate because a few senators objected, Richardson has said.