[greymule]

It's just possible that this is a HTBT. Suppose the runner is sprinting home and everybody in the park sees him miss the plate and run well past it. He turns around and scrambles back toward the plate as his team screams for him to touch it. The tag of the other runner occurs before the touch. We can even add: after effecting the third out, F3 sees what's happening at the plate and throws home a little too late to get the runner who is scrambling back. With or without the throw from F3, this seems an obvious "no run" to me.

OTOH, what if, while watching the play develop on the other runner, he walks right past the plate and then proceeds about 10 feet up the 1B line to pick up the bat. As he watches the runner be tagged out, a teammate gets his attention and points to the plate in an apparent indication that he should touch it. The runner who missed the plate now takes a few steps back toward it but, perceiving the defense to be oblivious, says in a low voice to the teammate who pointed, "It's three outs. They can't appeal now," or "Aw, they didn't see it," and goes directly to his position without touching the plate. On that one, I think I'd require an appeal.

I realize that there are also plays that fall within these two extremes.