Quote:
Originally posted by DDonnelly19
I think the pine tar incident is a special case; the Royals may have protested because they believed the penalty did not coincide with the intent of the rule, and the AL president agreed.
I suppose an analogous situation (strictly off the top of my head) would be such -- 11-12YO kids playing on a large field (300' down the line). Outfield almost playing on the edge of the infield dirt. Batter hits a fair ball down the line, rolls down the warning track and under a gate down in the corner. BR would have easily had an inside-the-park HR had the ball stayed in play. Umpire correctly ruled ground-rule double, and manager protests, claiming that the award (2 bases) does not coincide with the level of ball. Of course, the protest committe agrees with the manager and upholds the protest.
The umpires got the call right, but the protest committee felt the rule should be changed. Although I agree with the Pine Tar ruling (since I am a Royals fan), that's a bad precedent to set, especially at the amateur level.
Dennis
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At the Major League level it is not unusual to see a runner having easily gotten into 3B on a ground rule double being sent back to second. I would simply call that "unfortunate" and move the game along. I see no difference with a ball at the LL level that goes under a fence in the deep outfield. This is one of those things you go over in the pre-game with the coaches. I do not believe that MLB should have disallowed the overturn of Brett's homerun nor should LL overrule that umpire. It was clearly in the rulebook. Nettles had observed Brett's bat in mid-summer and alerted Billy Martin to the violation. Having said this I must confess to having done a JV game a number of years ago where football stands were located in left field about 500 feet from home plate. The home team manager said that was played as a "triple". I told both coaches we didn't have ground rule triples yet we "accommodated" them in that game. Fortunately for the integrity of the game no one hit the ball that far. Jim Simms/NY