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Originally Posted by GarthB
HOWEVER, the rule still describes the runner's deviation as "three feet away from his baseline". The baseline runs through the points, if not, any runner in a rundown would be out by your interpretation.
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I think you are contending that the baseline runs from the runner to the base, and also extends behind the runner away from the base, and that this notion is required for a runner to escape a rundown. This is simply not correct, as evidenced both by black letter rule ("straight line from the runner to the base") , and by ordinary and long standing practice. Typically, as I alluded in my first post, there are two potential baselines for a runner between two bases, e.g. 1st and 2nd. The two potential baselines generally form an asymmetric V-shape, with the runner at the vertex of the V, and the bases at the tops of the V. If the runner is close to a direct line between the bases, the included angle of the V is large; if the runner is a skunk in the outfield, the angle of the V is acute. The line of extension away from the base past the runner is not in the baseline. For example, if the skunk is subject to a tag attempt, and runs more than 3 feet toward the outfield fence, he is out, even if he runs along one of the extended baselines. Some rundowns occur near the direct line between bases, and so each baseline looks like the extension of the other, but that is a coincidence, not a requirement.
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Originally Posted by GarthB
If you'd rule the runner out just because he moves more than three feet towards home on a tag attempt, you would be making up your own rule.
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No, actually I would be enforcing the rule as it is written today. The question is if an interpretation which takes into account the new phrasing would allow the runner to continue back toward home (which is not a safe haven) more than three feet during a tag attempt.