[DownTownTonyBrown]

Had a play earlier this season on which I would like to get some input from this knowledgeable crowd....

Runner is coming into 3rd requiring a tag. I'm the BU and am positioned about 5 feet inside the foul line looking through the base toward left field (excellent positioning!) The ball gets there well before the runner so the runner changes directions. I move back towards 2nd with him. My partner comes up from the plate yelling "I got this end Tony." Pickle/hot-box/run-down ensues.

I maintain a position fairly even with the runner. Defense is not great. Runner is returning towards 3rd probably about 15 feet from the base and nearly even with the defender. Throw from 2nd is probably 6 feet outside the diamond. Fielder catches the throw and swings his left hand from where the ball was caught across his body towards the runner. Runner, to avoid the tag, throws his feet and body inside the diamond, to the left and comes to rest with his feet in foul territory towards home, his belly-button on the foul line, and his right hand about 6-8 inches short of 3rd base toward home. He scrammbles and gets his hand on base.

I have dropped in behind the runner and am now looking almost directly down the baseline from 2nd to 3rd. I'm thinking 'out of the baseline' and actually have put my hands in a position to emphasize that call (both hands to my right with palms ready to push left). I remember my partner though and hesitate slightly because he has this end of the play. I hear him (from about 15 feet down the line) state and then ask, "I got no tag. Tony, you got a tag?" I responded "No he didn't tag him." And before we can have any further discussion he has yelled "SAFE!"

I held my tongue and headed back to the "C" position.

The only heat we took was from one grandparent fan setting behind home plate (150 feet away) yelling that he was out of the baseline. It was a pretty childish response on his part but given who it was I couldn't have expected anything else.

Did I do this right? The runner did not take a step out of his basepath but he did leap away from the basepath landing where he couldn't quite reach the base. I protected my partner by not adding any further discussion after his safe call... and not adding any confusion by reversing the call.

The action was close enough to legal, and illegal, that I wasn't willing to push it either way. And I don't think we would have gotten any flack from either coach if the call had went the other way, had I more quickly yelled that the runner was out of the baseline.

Who has thoughts on this play or a similar conundrum?