[AtlUmpSteve]

I would suspect Mike wants someone to say we can ignore the passing because the ball is dead. However, that isn't so. A home run is a 4 base award; and all awarded bases require runners to follow standard baserunning requirements. Upon observation, the umpire must rule the "passing a runner" out, it is a timing play; when the infraction occured.

The key to this, and any other protest, is the wording used by the umpire in describing the (non)ruling. If he tells the UIC he saw it and chose not to rule because the ball was dead, this is a misapplied rule. If he claims he didn't see it, it is not protestable that he didn't rule on what he didn't see. If he claims it didn't actually happen (as Glen notes, didn't fully pass, for example), it is not protestable, as judgment.