Quote:
Originally Posted by umpjong
Fed. pg 48,49. 8-2 Art. 1 and Penalty (Art. 1-5)
8-2 Art. 1 An advancing runner shall touch first, second, third and then home plate in order, including awarded bases.
Penalty (Art. 1-5) For failure to touch a base (advancing and returning), or failure to tag up as soon as the ball is touched on a caught fly ball, the runner may be called out if an appeal is made by the defensive team.
As soon as the runner stops to "celebrate", he is fair game to be put out on appeal. The rule specifically says "shall" touch, it doesnt say that they may take their sweet time in doing so. I've got an out and play on....
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I dont see a rule on illegal celebration, specifically with regards to this OP, and wonder how you would rule when a batter hits a HR, and temporarily stops to shake his 3rd base coach's hand. Or maybe stops on his way to 1st to hand the coach his batting gloves while giving him a high five.
Your use of the words "shall touch" does not mean "immediately"
or "take your time" in my opinion.
Sure, common sense dictates that at some point, the batter runner realizes his mistake and goes to 1st, or is told to go to 1st, or he sees/hears an attempted appeal on him which "wakes him up", or he ignorantly enters the dugout. Ruling an out in this OP was wrong. If I was BU, I'd keep my eye on batter runner- something will happen to make me rule correctly..
What interested me was not the fact that the officials eventually ruled correctly, but that 3 of them couldnt come to a decision on the field, looked in a rulebook, then called on a cell for outside help(per the assignor) which took 1 hr.
Frankly, thats embarrassing.