When is B1 out on desertion?

[Rich Ives]

Create all the third-world plays you want. You know, the good ones where the offense gets an advantage when the BR goes into the dugout.



Bottom of the last inning, home trailing by one (or even better, score tied).

R1 and R3.

And it's not a TWP - but one done intentionally by using prior knowledge and planning ahead because a coach read the response and tells his batter what to do if . . . .


Batter hits a two hop sure DP ball. Intentionally runs into the dugout rather than to first. Gets called out for desertion, force on R1 removed.

Defense, not knowing the ruling, starts the DP attempt - tags only 2B, not R1.

R3 "scores" in the interim.

Result - tying (or winning) run scores because R1 is now not out as he wasn't tagged.

Do you really think the run should be allowed to score? I don't and, because I read this thread, I'm one of the few coaches that could teach my team how to do it.

And once the cat is out of the bag, "everyone" will try to do it.

And then the rulesmakers will tell us the force is not removed if, in the umpires judgement, the batter willfully enters DBT.

So why not just not allow it in the first place?