[Andy]

Wow.....do you think that he really thought that his interpretation was the rule or do you think he was covering for the fact that he either missed or did not see the runner in question touch the base?

If he truly thought that this was the rule, hopefully someone will show him in the book that he is incorrect. If he was covering, he really opened a can of worms and ended up taking a lot more grief than if he had simply ruled "safe" on the appeal.

It doesn't sound as if there is much more that you could have done, you can't rule on the appeal, you can't tell the coach that your partner is wrong in his ruling, you gave the coach the option of the protest with the fee (which I hate, BTW, but that's a different discussion).

About the only other thought I have is to offer to pull out your lineup card for your partner to try to identify #5 to help determine which runner she was and rule on the appeal.

It's no wonder that parents and coaches come up with strange rule interpretations and myths after hearing about stuff like this.