jicecone,
Not so fast there! I fear that you and your colleagues came to the wrong conclusion at your meeting.
The proper award in the situation you described in the inital post of this thread is 2 bases for any runners on base at the point in time that the catcher carried the ball into dead ball territory. That is, the BR, standing on 2B at that point in time (if I'm reading your description correctly) is awarded home.
By my read, only DG and, possibly Carbide Keyman (it's not clear from his response if he would award 2 bases from TOP, TOT, or Time that the ball became "out of play") have given you the correct answer to your question.
Let me try to illustrate by putting a "twist" in your inital siutation.
Let's imagine that everything happened as you described up until the point in time that the runner who may have missed home entered the dugout. Let's say he was "loitering" near the on-deck circle watching the play unfold and, seeing the batter arrive safely at 2B, starts walking back to the dugout. The imbecile coach instructs his catcher to throw the ball to the F5 (assuming said runner is returning to the 3B side dugout) so that he may tag the runner. The catcher attempts to comply with his coach's instruction, but, alas, the throw "gets away from him" in his excitement and sails over the dugout into dead ball territory.
What would your ruling be in terms of base awards? (Hint: The correct ruling would be two bases to any runners beyond the last base legally touched at the time the ball left the catcher's hand.)
In terms of the rules governing base awards, the situation you described is no different!
JM
|