[greymule]

I think the theoretical questions Mike poses are good ones. There are certainly dead ball situations in which nothing can happen, and there are dead ball situations in which runners have to meet certain responsibilities. And I know that there are plays for which I would not follow the letter of the law.

To my knowledge, ASA is alone in using the time of the award as a distinguishing point. For example: Batter hits a ball off the fence, misses 1B, touches 2B, and is on his way to 3B when the throw from the outfield appears to be in time to get him. But the throw bounces through and hits DBT a moment before the BR slides into 3B. The umpire awards home. In ASA, that runner can return to 2B, correct his error at 1B, and then take his award. This is because the runner did not advance to the next base after the award was made. (This way of handling such a play is relatively new in ASA.) In OBR, he cannot correct his error, because he advanced to the next base (3B) after the ball became dead. (In Fed, he cannot correct his error, but for a different reason: when the ball became dead, he was on or beyond the base in advance of the base where he committed the error.)

So, if a B2 passes R1 at first on a ball which is heading over the fence, s/he is out if the ball is declared fair, but not out if the ball is declared foul.

That would be the logical ruling, but in fact, in ASA, if B2 passes R1 before the ball becomes foul (ie, while it is still in the air and live), B2 is out. A few years ago, I submitted that play on this forum merely to assure myself that ASA's ruling was the same as OBR's (foul ball, passing is irrelevant). However, the answer I got was that B2 was out, so I checked with ASA, and to my surprise they said the same thing: the runner is out if the passing occurs while the ball is still in the air; otherwise, it's merely a foul ball.

In certain levels of SP, the runners are not required to run the bases. However, if there is a pass during the flight of the HR ball, is that runner out even though the rule states that they are not required to run the bases? The only exception noted are appeals and passing a runner is not an appeal. Again, the passing occured during live ball play, not after the ball became dead.

ASA told me that, even where the runners don't have to run the bases, the runner passing is out if the passing occurs before the ball hits over the fence. I was not aware that appeals were allowed. (What would an appeal be for? Missing 1B while the ball was still in the air?)

However, I've learned that what ASA tells you is not necessarily absolute. I was UIC at an ASA regional qualifier this summer, and I spent a lot of time with a high official of ASA, watching the mechanics of the umpires and discussing rules. According to this fellow, several questions on this year's ASA test were not only misleading, but just plain wrong, including the play in which the BR accidentally kicks an uncaught third strike that had bounced off F2 and out in front of the plate. I suggested that the play where the defense can't get an advantageous fourth out on a runner who didn't score also falls into that category, and he said it might. Apparently one of the people constructing questions had misinterpreted some rules, and the questions weren't given a final and authoritative review. (How true is all this? Who knows?)