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Originally Posted by Matt
The defense cannot appeal BR. You can't appeal a runner at a base he never reached. The out is automatically called by the umpire.
If you say that the defense can appeal BR in this, then the flip side is that they would also have the choice not to. if that was the case, how exactly do you account for BR absent an appeal? He never reached first, yet was never put out. It is this contradiction that shows why this is not an appealable offense, but an automatic out.
To take it a step further, let's say that we have the same situation in the OP, but with no one out. The play happens the same way (touch of home, tag of R2, BR gives up.) Now there is one out, and BR is sitting in the dugout. If we use your logic, and the defense appeals the out, then we have two out. What happens if a pitch is thrown instead? BR was never put out, but he's not on base. Do you go and get BR out of the dugout and put him on first?
In short, desertion is an automatic out, not an appeal.
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If the throw was before the BR went to the dugout, it would be recognized as an advantageous fourth out. It's idiotic, but analogous to the play posted by Carl a few years ago where those in charge were presented with a scenario where the batter blows out an ankle and a non-forced runner is put out for a third out when the runner scores. The powers that be (I don't remember who, exactly, perhaps Fitzpatrick) said that you could, indeed throw to first and have that be an advantageous fourth out.
I'd be hard pressed to call the BR out for desertion, though, for failing to run to first AFTER a third out was recorded elsewhere, authoritative opinion be damned.