[greymule]

I suspect we've all been there, DownTown. I think you're going to doubt yourself either way. Good philosophical question.

Passed ball, runner from 3B tries for home. Pitcher covers and quick throw from F2 beats the runner by 15 feet. Pitcher holds the glove down a foot in front of the plate, about ten inches off the ground. You see that the sliding runner's foot touches the plate a moment before her knee hits the glove. What are you going to call? Safe may be what God sees, but they call that and worse an out in the Major Leagues and nobody argues.

On the other hand, if the throw had been a little late and F1 had been unable to get the tag down in time, you'd call safe on what was pretty much the same type of late tag.

Runner stealing 3B. F5 gloves the throw and puts the glove down in front of 3B. Runner slides, and an instant before F5's foot would have hit the glove, F5 lifts the glove to show you the ball. It's an out in MLB. Are you going to call safe in girls' rec FP?

Of course, even if you're the only one in the park who after a tag at 2B sees the ball bounce on the ground and right back into the glove, you call safe.

Are you going to call out on the LBR if, with the ball in the circle, the runner on 1B lifts her foot an inch off the bag for a quarter of a second in order to place it on the front edge in preparation for the pitch?

Last year in a SP playoff I called safe at 2B on a DP attempt when F4 straddled the bag with 10 inches of daylight between each foot and the bag. You'd have thought I pulled the Brinks robbery, even though the defense admitted he in fact had not been on the bag. I'll stick with my decision on that one, though.

Last summer, SP tourney, home team way ahead. Visitors' F3 lifts his foot off 1B a step before the runner gets there. The throw was good; he could have held the bag easily. But he pulled the old "we're all professionals here; everybody knows that at our level you can leave 1B early."

I thought for an instant but then called out. A couple of guys on the offense started to say something, but some of their teammates told them they'd have called an out, too.

Of course, had they been behind by 2 instead of ahead by 21, they might have felt different. I also probably would have made a different call. (And I also suspect F3 wouldn't have pulled his foot.)