Quote:
Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve
I believe it was an old myth that you couldn't touch the home run hitter until he touched the plate. I remember youth ball teams would always yell at each other, "dont' touch him...dont' touch him!" while lining up at the plate to congratulate their hero. I always thought to myself, "why not?" I certainly would not call someone out for such a petty BS call like that.
This is truly an example of an umpire wanting to inject himself into the game, as if it weren't enough to be a participant in an official capacity.
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It was an old NCAA rule (I think softball had this also also) designed to keep the players from lining up down the 3rd base line to congratulate the HR hitter. The schools claimed that this action was intimidating because the offensive players were taunting F1 & F2 during this congratulatory action. Over the years, it was quietly removed but the whole mess filtered down to the lower schools and leagues.
The main thing is to keep the plate clear so we can see the runners & BR touch the plate, just in case the defense wants to make an appeal.