Quote:
Originally Posted by chapmaja
The problem is there is nothing that says it is a legal act either. Nowhere in the rules does it say running to 1st base on a dropped second strike is a legal act. You are correct it does not specify it is illegal, but at the same time it does not specify the act as an allowable action of the batter either. That is my point which some of you are to thick headed to understand.
|
Whoa, what's with the insult?
Your problem is that you want everything to be black or white. The truth is, there's plenty of gray in the rules. And that's where umpires earn their stripes, dealing with that gray such that neither team is disadvantaged.
Just yesterday, I worked bases in a HS conference first-round playoff game. The weather was not favorable; we had a good drenching an hour before game time, and it rained off and on after we started. The home team pitcher had a pretty long towel hanging out of her back pocket to dry her hand between pitches.
When she came to bat, my partner directed her to remove the towel and put it in the dugout. Why? Probably because he didn't want a situation where a pitch hits the towel.
Was it illegal for her to have that towel in her pocket? Nope; there's no rule that says that. So does that make it legal? Not necessarily; if it was legal, then my partner couldn't make her take it out. He did something to nip a potential problem in the bud. Nobody complained.
The same is true here. There's no black and white rulings when a batter takes off for first when she doesn't become a batter-runner. You yourself said you would announce "That's Strike Two!" to try and nip that in the bud. That's what I would do. And if the catcher still makes a throw, then that's on her for not paying attention.