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Sigh, I thought the logic was obvious.
The cite requires the BR to continue to run and touch 1st base after the third out was obtained elsewhere on the basepath, or to be subject to a 4th out appeal.
A group of us argued that since the inning was over, the BR was not required to touch the 1st base. (I can't recall if this was on a public or private forum, but it led to Childress requesting the official interpertation.)
Carl received official interpertations from Fed(Hopkins), NCAA (Fetchiet) and OBR (Fitpatrick) which stated that unless the BR touched 1st base before the defense appealed, despite the fact that the 3rd out has "ended" the inning, he was subject to appeal.
Therefore the simple logic is that the BR must proceed to touch first even though the inning is over. Therefore the offense must continue to run the bases after the 3rd out. To understand otherwise (as you propose) would mean that we would still call the BR out on appeal if the 3rd out had been obtained BEFORE he touched first! That would be a new rule to define when a run could score!!!!
Since the BR by official interpertation must continue to run the bases even if the 3rd out has been obtained elsewhere, your contention that the ofense has no authority to run the bases after the 3rd out is obviously incorrect. (The official ruling indicates otherwise.)
If the BR has the responsibility to continue to run after the 3rd out, why would that be changed if he was retreting to touch 1st? Why would any other runner be treated otherwise? The logic extending the the ruling to runners other than the BR would be found in the precedent set by the Brigman Ruling extending 7.08k to all bases instead of just home base.
Further support to the logic would be the simple statement that the offense is not prohibited by rule to correct the baserunning error, therefore what is not prohibited must be allowed.
Since a number of us (the majority in the discusssion in 2001 as I recall) were suprised that the offense had a responsibility to continue to run bases after the 3rd out, I think we are bound by the official interpertation that they do unless and until the powers that be decide otherwise.
In 18 years I have not had this play. I'm hoping that I don't in the next 18.
Roger Greene
[Edited by Roger Greene on Jan 30th, 2005 at 09:17 AM]
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