[Dakota]

Originally Posted by mcrowder

No - the arm has nothing to do with whether protection is on or off. You leave the DDB signal up long enough for everyone (who's looking) has time to see it, and then you drop it. Dropping it has nothing to do with any of your decisions regarding protection. The arm signal merely means that you have a delayed dead ball (it is, after all, the DDB signal, not the OBS signal). It is conceivable that you could have your arm still out on a play briefly after the runner has outrun her protection - so saying "if the arm is still out it means protection is still in force" is just not correct.

Heck - under your logic, if you were protecting to home plate on an apparent ITPHR, you'd have to leave your arm up while the runner slogs around from 1st to home.

I didn't mean it to be a technicality... but if the arm is still out half way to the next base, what is the umpire telling the players / coaches?