Quote:
Originally posted by sir_eldren
So how about a similar situation:
A runner on second has a nice leadoff, the batter hits one foul. He walks towards second but never touches it. The next ball is hit short to the outfield and he makes it to third. The batter is thrown out at first, and the ball is returned to the pitcher. The second baseman, understanding the rule about having to touch up on a foul ball tells the pitcher to throw him the ball. He steps on the bag and the base umpire calls what? -Craig
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Craig: This "retouch after a foul ball" is a mistake left over from the do-over of the OBR in 1950. It is true the runners "must" retouch their bases after a foul ball: "The umpire shall not put the ball in play until all runners have retouched their bases." (5.09c)
But what if he does?
The runner who did not retouch is not subject to appeal! That infraction was dropped from 7.10 during the revision. Nowadays, a runner is subject to appeal for four infractions only: (1) failing to retouch after a caught fly ball; (2) missing a base while advancing or returning; (3) overrunning or oversliding first and failing to return immediately; or (4) overrunning or oversliding home plate, thereafter making no attempt to return.
When I played as a kid, we had to retouch after the foul. When I started umpiring, the rule had changed. But coaches still said: "Get back to the base." Those coaches taught kids who became coaches who taught kids who.... Today, there are still coaches who think a runner must retouch after the foul ball or be in jeopardy of an out.
One needs to know the purpose of the "retouch-after-a-foul" rule. It is to ensure that runners -- at the time of the next pitch -- are near their original base!
Play: R2: B1 flies deep to right. It is obvious the ball will not be caught, so R2 takes off and rounds third. The ball is both foul and uncaught. So he stops at third -- illegally. He's got to get back to second, you see.
So the practice in upper-level baseball is to make sure the ball is not alive until all runners have returned to the vicinity of the bases occupied at the time of the pitch that the batter hit foul.
In your play, then, the runner cannot be called out because he has committed no baserunning infraction.
[Edited by Carl Childress on May 7th, 2004 at 03:50 PM]