Umpire's Nightmare #2

[Jim Porter]

ATTENTION!!!
I'll leave this up here for posterity, and in case anyone wants to discuss any of the elements. This Nightmare was POSTED IN ERROR, and should be ignored.

Please see Umpire's Nightmare Version 2.0.1!
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Okay, I went easy on you guys in the first one. No such luck with this one. Have fun!

- Bottom of the ninth, tie score

- Bases loaded, no outs

- Pitcher balks but delivers

- Catcher interferes with batter's swing, but he smacks a towering deep fly to right.

- R1 and R3 were off on contact, but R2 remained at his base.

- R1 is obstructed by F3 as he runs to second.

- R1 reaches second, where he and R2 both occupy the base, when R2 pushes R1 back towards first.

- The BR rounds first as R1 is retreating, and the BR passes R1.

- F9 misses the fly ball.

-R1 retouches, and grabs the BR pulling him behind him. The two run the bases in tandem, the BR right behind R1.

- R2 tags up and begins running toward third.

- R3, who had crossed home and entered his dugout, re-emerges, retouches home plate, and retreats back toward third.

- F9 gains control of the ball, and then throws wildly to F4.

- R2 rounds third as his base coach is pleading with him to stop. R2 runs smack into his base coach, and both fall to the ground on the home plate side of third.

- F4 retrieves the ball, and fires to F5. The ball goes wild past F5 and settles in live ball territory by the third base dugout.

- R3, retreating back to third, runs past R2 and the base coach, who are lying on the ground. R3 retouches third, and makes his way home.

- R1, with the BR right behind him, rounds third.

- R1 stops, picks up the poor injured R2, and carries him to the plate. The BR remains behind R1 throughout.

- F1 retrieves the errant throw from in front of the dugout, and fires to F2.

- F2 catches the ball. He tried to tag R1, but instead tags R2 who R1 is still carrying. The catcher fails to tag the BR.


Go ahead - sort through that one! How many runs score, how many outs are there, what are the calls and rulings?


[Edited by Jim Porter on Mar 1st, 2001 at 12:54 AM]

[DDonnelly19]

Well, I'll make this easy and assume this is FED ball. Ball dead immediately upon balk, 1 run scores, no outs, game over.

-BR called out upon passing R1 after he touches 1B. One out.

-R1 is protected to 2B due to obstruction. He reaches the base, but then retreats on his own. He makes it back to the bag in time to retouch. Either way, he's reached the base he was protected to (either 1B or 2B). The obstruction is now irrelevant.

-R3's touching of home (whether on the advance or retreat; it's not clear if he did touch initially) is scored a run, and his retreat to 3B is disregarded.

-R2's contact with the coach is incidental and disregarded. Since R3 has scored, he's no longer considered a runner for purproses of passing another runner, so his passing of R2 is ignored.

-For the sake of argument, I'll assume that R1's "carrying" of R2 does not count as "passing" another runner. R2 is tagged out, but R1 scores. Since all runners advanced to or past the base awarded, the play stands. 2 in, 2 out, game over.

But wait -- the moment R3 touches home the game is over, so the rest is nothing. The defense can't cancel the run since all the runners remaining had advanced past the base they were forced to. 1 in, 1 out (BR passing R1), game over.

Jim -- why not have the on-deck batter drag a runner across the plate while you're at it?

Dennis

[DJWickham]

So many red herrings.

First, ignore the balk. BR reached first. R1 is awarded at least second on the obstruction (that's an advance); R2 reached third before injury; R3 reached home (twice).

Ignore the catcher's interference. Same reason: everyone advanced one base.

R2 can push R1 cause they are runners, not base coaches (and its happening at second, not first or third).

BR passes R1 after passing first. BR's out.

R1 can drag BR (who's still out)

R2's contact with the coach is incidental, and not an action by the coach to move R2 to or from third. His verbal pleadings are irrelevant.

R3 crossed home. If I saw R3 touched the plate, game ends immediately when runner scores. Rule 4.11(c) Hotdog and coke.

Assume R3 didn't touch home. I didn't call time (and didn't say anything), so R3 can return from the dugout and retouch home causes its still live ball. He retouches home, game is now over. He doesn't need to retouch third because F9 didn't catch fly ball. I don't care care about R1 or R2 unless they were both out before R3 retouched home
And they aren't even close to being out until later.

[Warren Willson]

Originally posted by Jim Porter
- Pitcher balks but delivers

- Catcher interferes with batter's swing, but he smacks a towering deep fly to right.

Both ignored since all runners advanced at least one base during the subsequent action.

- R1 is obstructed by F3 as he runs to second.

- R1 reaches second, where he and R2 both occupy the base, when R2 pushes R1 back towards first.

- The BR rounds first as R1 is retreating, and the BR passes R1.

- F9 misses the fly ball.

BR as trailling runner is out for passing R1 going the other way, once the fly ball is not caught. 1 OUT. [OBR 7.08(h)] Type B obstruction protects R1 at least to 2nd.

-R1 retouches, and grabs the BR pulling him behind him. The two run the bases in tandem, the BR right behind R1.

- R2 tags up and begins running toward third.

"That's NOTHING!" Sorry, I couldn't resist! Well it IS "nothing" if not stupid, but then no-one said baseball players had to be bright!

- R3, who had crossed home and entered his dugout, re-emerges, retouches home plate, and retreats back toward third.

This is neither legal nor necessary. 1 run scored, and cannot be undone. Count 1 in - 1 out the moment R3 crossed home plate. "Game!" under OBR 4.11(c)

How'd I do?? (Careful. That's a trick question)