Please read and let me know if my facts are correct.

[jesmael]

Is the rule myth often quoted by many people an incorrect use of terms? Tie deals with time, safe/out is the ruling.

Taken from eteamz…
THE TIE RULE MYTH
There is no such thing in the world of umpiring. The runner is either out or safe. The umpire must judge out or safe. It is impossible to judge a tie.

The umpire has the tough job of judging the timing of the act and then needs to rule base on the timing. Just as you can say it is impossible to judge a tie, you could also say the same in reverse. Let’s just examine a force out, for now. If you are viewing the runner touching the base and the ball being received, the timing can be so close that you can’t determine if one happened before the other, thus from a timing perception a “tie”. So from a timing perspective, you can have a tie, and that is totally independent from the rule aspect. How to rule if the act happened so close you can not determine if one happened before the other, meaning did the ball or the runner reach the base first

Lets look at the rules(OBR), 6.05 deals with a batter becoming a runner and 7.08 deals with a runner going to 2nd, 3rd, or Home.


6.05 A batter is out when_ (j) After a third strike or after he hits a fair ball, he or first base is tagged before he touches first base;

Here as it relates to time, the rule states the runner must be tagged before he touches first base. So if they were to happen at the same time, the runner would be safe because the runner was not tagged “before”.


7.08 Any runner is out when_ (e) He fails to reach the next base before a fielder tags him or the base, after he has been forced to advance by reason of the batter becoming a runner.

Here it states that the runner must reach the base before the ball, thus a perception of time being a tie, the runner would be out.

So in conculsion, tie goes to runner at first and tie goes to fielders at the other bases.


[Edited by jesmael on Jun 11th, 2005 at 08:21 AM]