[Dakota]

"Reckless disregard" is an interesting legal concept. Every summer we have cases of parents leaving their children in the car resulting in the child's death due to heat. I heard a radio discussion between two lawyers on whether these parents could be charged. It seemed to boil down to whether they acted with "reckless disregard." If a parent forgot the child was in the back seat and went into work, for example, that would not be reckless disregard; that would be a tragic accident. On the other hand, if the parent left the child in the car and went into work knowing the child was there but assuming the child would be OK, that WOULD be reckless disregard.

Applying what seems to be the principle there, if the runner was only trying to score and lost his balance and crashed into the catcher, that would be a tragic accident. If, OTOH, the runner crashed into the catcher in an attempt to knock the ball loose, that would be reckless disregard. Crashing into a fielder while running full speed to knock the ball loose is prohibited behavior, not normal to play in recreational softball, and for the runner to do this showed reckless disregard for the safety of the catcher.

Seems like a sound argument to me. That probably means it will be tossed out by the court.