tie goes to the runner?

[His High Holiness]

Originally posted by Skip Sturgeon
If a play at base is too close to call, does a tie go to the runner? This seems to be the case in our league(6-8yr.olds) , but I can't imagine it is a written rule. We had several "coaches"(Dads) debate this the other night.Who's right?

Blaine Gallant once quoted a study that showed that 90% of all whackers too close to call were outs when viewed in slow motion replay.

In point of fact, the human brain is unable to distinquish between events that occur less than .04 seconds apart. The US military determined this in a study with young male soldiers. I wonder what a study would have shown with old fat guys with glasses.

In .04 second, an NCAA player moves about 15 inches. Thus, the human brain is unable to see ties. We may think that we see them, but it is an illusion. A few years ago on McGriffs, I wrote a long piece in which I did some advanced math concerning the speed of light and the speed of sound. In combination, those two things play a role in whackers at first base. Cranking in the .04 second factor as well, I concluded that that 75% of whackers where a tie is percieve by an umpire, were, in fact, outs. This tracks closely with Blaine's information.

Therefore, "when in doubt, call an out," is back up by both physics and empirical evidence. It's the best we've got for now.

Peter