[greymule]

I think the questions posed were entirely legitimate. The differences of opinion and interpretation suggest that there's considerable confusion as to what exactly to call.

I do believe the rule was instituted to prevent runners from "playing games" with the defense. Still, the spirit of the rule takes you only so far. I think the best policy is to follow the book (ignoring certain exceptions: for example, if the runner returns to 1B with the ball in the circle, and then in turning her foot to get ready to run upon the release, she moves it an inch off the base for half a second, that's not a violation).

Not only do stops before the ball is in the circle not count as stops, they also have no bearing on anything that happens after the ball gets into the circle. Nothing that the runner does before the ball gets into the circle affects the look-back rule at all. See the ball in the circle first, then look at the runners.