Quote:
Originally Posted by jmkupka
So in a nutshell, your premise is, a play is not over until the next play begins.
Unless an umpire calls time, or the ball is dead by rule.
I try to read the rulebook and casebook cover to cover before every season (and for reference during  ), and I just don't recall ever reading that interpretation. |
You may be 100% right. To be honest, I don't know exactly when a play ends by rule, and the next one begins. It's a little like Supreme Court definition of obscenity: you know it when you see it. I'm just stringing known rules together in an attempt to answer a question that is not explicitly covered in the book.
The loophole here with the OBS runner and subsequent violations is that a "play" is not defined (as discussed above), but a pitch ,and its various outcomes, is defined. I'm trying to fill that loophole for purposes of discussion and clarity by equating a pitch to a play, using the rules. If we replace the word "play" with "pitch" in all of the posts in this thread, I think my logic holds up. Note that I'm not attempting to conflate the "initial play" or "subsequent play" definitions as they apply to OBS. I'm just trying to create a rule-driven definition of "THE PLAY".