The Umpire's Nightmare

[Warren Willson]

Originally posted by Jim Cunningham
Thank you gentleman for sorting all of that out for me!
My only concern is the use of the term 'force out' for the appeal play on B1 at 2nd.
The reason no run scores on appeal is not because of a force out!, but; "OBR 4.09 (a) EXCEPTION (3) by a preceding runner who is declared out because he failed to touch one of the bases."
I particularly enjoyed the threaded discussion's attention to the detail of the missed base. Warren Willson's distinction of "his legal advance" counting in the determination of ignoring the balk and the catcher's interference and in its application to ruling on F3's obstruction on R1 was particularly informative!

Actually, Jim, it was R1 who was out on appeal at 2nd base rather than B1. In this case the appeal out at 2nd means the run won't score under both OBR 4.09(a) Exception (2) and (3). At the time R1 missed 2nd base, he was indeed forced to advance by virtue of the batter becoming a runner. Consequently, R1's out on appeal was also a force out. Appeal outs for a missed base are deemed to occur under the conditions applicable at the time the base was missed. If, for example, there had been an R3 ahead of our R1 on this play, that run would NOT have scored either as a result. [see OBR 7.12]

If R1 had missed 3rd rather than 2nd, then you are quite correct that any appeal out on R1 at 3rd would not have been a force out but would still have prevented the following runners from scoring under OBR 4.09(a) Exception (3), as you correctly noted. In this case, however, if we had an R3 as well then his run WOULD have scored on the time play.

Glad you enjoyed the discussion. Give Jim Porter's Umpire's Nightmare #2 a go as well.

Cheers,