|
Wade - I tried to email this so as to take our argument off-line, but you do not allow email so here is my final response.
Youve had your fun, and expressed your sarcasm, but I am telling you that you are flat-out wrong.
What we are discussing is a very unique rule, somewhat obscure, and one that most people have no clue about. It is a baseball rule that found its way into softball, though I dont know why. In MLB it rules on a runner trying to steal with subsequent CO. Dead ball and runner is entitled to the base.
It has been in both NFHS BB and SB books for years as a note under CO. If you have access to any NFHS books prior to 2002 you can find that note.
Around 2002 it became a rule in both NFHS SB and ASA FP exactly as you see it today. And the 2002 NFHS casebook had the same play you see today. It was wrong in 2002, and it is still wrong.
In baseball this rule makes sense. A runner gets a big jump on the pitcher (especially from 3B if the pitcher is throwing from the windup) and the catcher knocks the batter off balance or holds their bat, catches the ball and nails the runner (again especially in the suicide bunt play). Kill the play, and award the base.
In softball this rule makes no sense. With the ball traveling from the pitchers hand to the plate in less than a second, the runner does not get more than a step or two and I doubt if the catcher ever senses a steal and has time to react. Whatever, the rule is there. Though now (in NFHS and ASA) it applies only to a runner trying to steal from 3B.
If you honestly read the rule in both books, you can see that it requires an immediate dead ball. Thus no hits can come into play.
If you read the ASA casebook (copied here earlier) you can see that it agrees with the rule. From that position, logic will tell you that the NFHS casebook play is wrong. It is 180 away from the ASA case play, and the ASA is right.
WMB
|