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Originally posted by rex
PLAY: Runner on first. B1 laces a liner to the gap in right-center. R1 rounds second, is going full speed for third, and looks as though he's going for home.
The third base coach moves down the line, in the runner's projected path, with his hands raised over his head. R1 rounds third and crashes into his coach, both of them falling to the ground.
In the meantime, the BR had rounded first and was steaming toward second. He reached second and rounded it a bit too far. F9 had retrieved the ball, and fired his relay to F4. F4 turned, saw R1 and his coach collide and fall to the ground, and then fired to second just in time for F6 to tag out the BR diving back to second.
F6 turns and fires to F5. R1 scrambles back to third just in time before F5's tag touches him on his back.
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You are correct in suggesting that some things about the discussion of this play have gotten "bizarre". I might even have been responsible for some of that. I read the original play and the Evans play and came up with a mental composite play. Somehow I managed to envisage that a play was being made on R1 at some point prior to the attempted tag by F5. Perhaps I saw F4 acting as the cutoff for F9's throw to the plate. Clearly that was not the case from the play reprinted above. All the same, I think the reference to F4 noting R1 was down, and the fact he subsequently did not play on the lead runner at home, probably indicates that this collision caused F4 to change his play and not throw home for the lead runner but instead to try for the BR at 2nd. The clear inference is that F4 would easily have had R1 at home if the runner had not collided with the coach. Heck, they almost had him at 3rd after they got the BR at 2nd.
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But this is all how we read the play and the players. The point of the drill was to make us think and for me it worked. I see that in this play it is as the rule is written in the judgement of the umpire. And folks we all aint gonna see the same thing the same way. Be it on the field or in writing. So as Carl said.
Quote:
Originally posted by Carl Childress
* OBR 7.09(i) In the judgement of the umpire, the base coach at third base, or first base, by touching or holding the runner, physically assists him in returning to or leaving third base or first base.
Here's what you're confusing: A runner rounds third and crashes into his coach in the coaching box. That's nothing but an accident. Coach's interference with a runner must be intentional.
But:
A coach stations himself in such a way as to prevent the runner from heading for an out at the plate: That is clearly intentional and obviously interference.
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In the judgement of the umpire
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Bottom line? You are absolutely correct. It is umpire's judgement on the play. Sorry, if my overactive imagination introduced some confusion into the discussion where you are concerned. It was purely unintentional, I assure you.
Cheers,