[greymule]

This question involves what OBR calls "last time by." As with many interpretations, this is not specifically spelled out in either the OBR or the ASA rule book. I asked years ago whether ASA recognizes this principle, and the answer on this board was "no," which ASA subsequently reaffirmed to me in an e-mail.

Therefore, in the OP, the ASA umpire made the correct call by ruling the runner out on appeal. In ASA, a runner cannot correct a miss simply by touching the base "last time by." In the OP, R1 must touch 2B on his way back before retouching 1B. For example, if the throw to 1B entered DBT, R1 would have to retouch 2B, then retouch 1B, then take his award (3B or home depending on where he was when outfielder released the ball.) An umpire accustomed to OBR rules would have to know that ASA does not call this play the same way.

OBR also has a stipulation that a "gross miss" of a base (by more than a body length) cannot be corrected last time by. ASA does not recognize the concept of a gross miss (versus a regular miss), and in this case, it wouldn't matter anyway, since "last time by" is not an issue in ASA.

I don't know how deeply anyone has ever analyzed this play, but there is a question in my mind as to whether R1 should be out for missing second or for failing to retouch 1B. (In other words, maybe the umpire was wrong to grant the appeal.) Obviously, if after missing 2B on his return, R1 ran two-thirds of the way back to 1B and didn't touch 1B, he could turn around and correct his miss at 2B and then, assuming he had time, retouch 1B and advance to 2B. So it seems to me that technically, that appeal that he missed 2B may not be valid, since he is standing on 2B. But since his retouch of 1B came before his legal retouch of 2B, he thus never actually returned to 1B. (Perhaps, in ASA's thinking, by standing on 2B he has now corrected his miss, but he has not yet legally retouched 1B.) Therefore, the trick might be that the appeal has to be for failing to tag up properly at 1B, not for missing 2B.

I'm assuming that, in the OP, "the ball is overthrown at 1B" means that the ball gets away and remains in play (does not enter DBT).