Quote:
|
Originally Posted by AtlUmpSteve
My personal collection of ASA rulebooks stops (starts) in 1999, the year I separated (and my ex decided what I no longer needed). If Mike or someone else with a historic collection of ASA rulebooks (WMB?) can go back before that, I believe that the one year of calling it a dead ball (to stop umpires from calling it interference) if the retired batter ran was about 1996 or 1997, then the rule was changed to the current live ball but cannot be interference the next year (1997 or 1998) with the written rationale for the change in the front of the ASA rulebook.
|
I don't have the rule book from then, but if memory serves me correctly, this was originally an interpretation. After a year, and a fair amount of whining (probably due to umpires taking the ruling to the extreme), the interpretation was to ignore the retired batter as it refers to advancing after being put out to draw a throw and the added sentence in the rule came the following season.
I orginally thought a retired batter never met the criteria of the rule to start as it referred to a retired runner. The retired batter was never a BR, let alone a R.