[thumpferee]

Originally posted by David B
Had a situation in game today where R3 and ball is overthrown. R3 comes to the plate and throw from F5 and R3 arrive almost simultaneously at the plate.

R3 runs into the F2 who is standing on the plate and dislodges the ball. A hard head first type of slide even though he never really hit the dirt, but there was no malicious contact (he didn't throw an elbow or extend his arms and push F2) I really think he wasn't expecting a throw and then realized at the last minute when the batter was hollering "get down get down".

Coach wants malicous contact but his comment that throws me was "the runner has to slide"

Of course (according to him) he has had this called two or three times already this year and he wants to know why?

I explain to him that the runner NEVER has to slide but if he does it must be legal. The runner has a right to make it to the plate and he did nothing that showed me intent to make it malicious.

Well the coach later is also complaining about the FPSR because the runner slides through the base.

Of course with no contact or altering of the play we have nothing, but according to him "this has been called all year on us."

So I promised him I'd send him the rule interpretations this week. I have all I need for the FPSR, but am looking for something on the malicious contact.

I looked through my FED interpretations and not much there, and case book also.

I couldn't find anything on the threads here (search doesn't work)

We know what malicious contact is, but I need a little help on the interpretation when its a bang bang play.

I didn't even want to get into a discussion about obstruction possibilities since F2 was on the plate.

Any ideas I'd appreciate.

Thanks
David

What age group of little league ball was this?

In lil' league 10-12 and under there is no head first slides at any base. You can slide back to the bag head first, but not advancing to a base. Runner is automatically out in 12yrs old and under divisions for sliding head first. In little league as a rule, the fielder must have the ball in order to be blocking a base or the plate. In your scenerio, the fielder had the ball, the runner must avoid contact. In the situation you posed, I would have called the runner out for illegal contact. IMO, the play you had was close enough to warrant a slide. Runner is out, ball is dead, all runners return to their bases last occupied at the time of illegal contact/interference.

If I'm not mistaken, malicious contact warrants automatic ejection and next game suspension. I am careful when making that call unless blatantly deliberate.