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Troy, that's a LITTLE misleading. Only in that you say LBR would not IMPACT a walked BR who goes to 2nd. Technically you're right, but I think that statement could easily be misread to lead someone to assume LBR is not in EFFECT on that runner. It is. In effect, that is. But it doesn't IMPACT her unless she violates what she's allowed to do while LBR is in effect.
LBR goes "into effect" on BOTH runners the moment BR touches 1st - and BOTH runners are allowed to do exactly what I describe in the above post. (IE - if your runner at 3rd was moving slowly toward the plate at the moment BR touched 1st, she could still continue toward home, stop once, decide, and then proceed either home or back to third).
Regarding your "free pass" comment - an astute defense will have pitcher face 3rd base on this play. When jogging BR gets about 4 steps from 2nd - fire to 2nd for the easy out, and right back to pitcher (or home if the runner takes off). Most BR's are shocked to see the ball coming, and freeze (failing to return to 1st, and get tagged). There's no reason for defense to make this a free pass if they can throw and catch with any success at all.
Another version of this that I like much less is throwing the ball to 1st baseman, who stands 1 foot past the bag at first. BR can't very well proceed past first or get tagged out, and that's usually too close for a coach to feel comfortable sending the runner from 3rd.
I implore all of you coaches out there to devise a successful defense to this so that offenses cut out the nonsense and we can simply get back to playing ball.
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