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I was waiting for our game to start (today I was wearing my player's hat), and the prior game was in the 7th inning, very close game. ASA slow pitch. We were standing along the fence on the OF side of 1B.
Ground ball to F-3, who boots the ball, and it squirts into foul ground, about 6 feet to the foul side of 1B. You know what's coming -- F3 picks the ball up and dives, touch the ball onto the orange safety base and gets the B-R by a step at least (B-R actually only touched white portion I think). The base umpire says "safe" and explains that F-3 touched the wrong base.
I've never seen a play like that, but I was 99.9% certain that the B-R should have been called out, since the play was coming from foul ground (the intent of the rule, as I understand it, is to prevent the F-3 and B-R from crossing paths and colliding, of which this was a textbook example). Tonight I looked at my rule book and my reading confirms that the B-R should have been out, as it was a "force out attempt from the foul side of first base." (Rule 8-2-M-c in 2002 book [get my 2003 book this week]). Thus, either player can touch either base, and that's exactly what happened, and the collision was avoided. If I'm wrong, please let me know.
2. Let's take it one step further. Let's say we have an overthrow from SS that gets away from F-3, and the ball lands six feet to the foul side of 1B. Can F-3 now get the ball and touch the orange base? I think so. It's not necessarily an errant throw as ASA has chosen to define that term at clinics and in the case book, but the play is still a force attempt at 1B from the foul side. What if the ball dropped two feet on the foul side of 1B? One foot?
3. What about a throw that pulls F-3 five steps into foul ground (though F-3 catches it), and F-3 maybe even crashes into the fence but at all times has the ball, and we have a slow runner and a close play. Can F-3 now run back and touch the colored portion? I would think so under the same reasoning as 2. On the other hand, the intent of the rule -- at least as explained by people in the know -- is not to let F-3 get pulled off the bag and just tap the orange base for the out, but at what point does that get converted into a force out attempt from the foul side. I don't believe a throw from one fielder to another covering 1B is required.
Just thinking out loud.
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