Are You Thinking, or Just Arguing
Obviously, unless you have runners travelling at about 186,000 mi/sec, any action on the ball field will be non-immediate. However, we are not in Tron!. Staying for a moment in reality, it's not the result of the runner's action which must be immediate, it's the beginning of his action that must meet the immediate criterion. Therefore, when R3 missed home plate, travelled towards his dug-out accepting his team's accolades on his baserunning prowess, he lost the privilege of having to be tagged for the put-out.
I understand where you disagree; it's where the clause itself states that the runner "...makes no attempt to return to the base." Clearly in this situation R3 attempted to return. But you ignore the casebook notation which clearly defines when the runner must start his attempt to return to home!
I also have seen this play, maybe not a hundred times, but enough to see it called both ways. That just lends credence to my earlier assertion that it is the umpire's prerogative to judge what immediate means in the context of the play: within two seconds, three steps, before entering the dug-out, etc.
Rich, perhaps your daily, reality-based definition of immediate is different from mine. I am an air traffic controller. When I tell a pilot to make a thirty degree left-turn immediately it means right f$%&*@g now! The pilot knows this explictly, and within seconds I observe his radar track turning left. (I should also say that controllers use this specific word only when absolutely necessary to safeguard lives, and the pilots know it.)
After reviewing your pleadings in this thread, I find that I have explained why I believe my position is the correct one, and I have clearly refuted every explanation you have offered in trying to defend yours.
Take it from Aristotle: The unexamined life is not worth living.
[Edited by dddunn3d on Feb 16th, 2005 at 01:04 AM]
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