Well, Dave, if you were really paying attention, he said it was Babe Ruth, who could never, ever be mistaken for Cal Ripken.:) Babe Ruth, playing as he put it "pro rules," which probably means modified OBR. And under OBR, I just posted the proper interp. The offense can confer during a defensive charged trip, but the defense cannot have a free trip during an offensive conference.

It's the other way around - if the umpire judges another player HAD a play on the ball, then the ball remains live. Here's the relevant text of the relevant rule, 7.09(m):

If a fair ball goes through or by an infielder, and touches a runner immediately back of him, or touches the runner after having been deflected by a fielder, the umpire shall not declare the runner out for being touched by a batted ball. In making such decision the umpire must be convinced that the ball passed through, or by, the fielder, and that no other infielder had the chance to make a play on the ball.

You have to parse it carefully, but if you do, I think you'll see that "In making such decision" is referring to the decision to NOT kill the ball; the condition for making that decision - NOT killing the ball - includes "no other infielder had the chance to make a play on the ball."

The play as given is almost surely a simple "runner out for interfering with a batted ball."

Cal Ripken is the 12 yearold division of Babe Ruth Baseball, Inc. So sue me.

I know this, didn't you see the smiley face? It meant I was j/k.

so do we all agree
 

so do we all agree with pro rules a. I can talk to my runners and batter as many times as i want per inning without being charged a time out if we break up when they break up....and B. in pro rules runner is out and batter gets 1st...15yr old babe ruth plays pro rules...thanks csuram

A) You can talk to your runners, and there is no such thing as a charged offensive time out under your rules.

B) Correct.

As Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) said to Vincent Vega (John Travolta) in Pulp Fiction, "that would be an exercise in futility..."

We can almost agree. I am not going to allow you to delay the game significantly. So if you call time to talk to a batter, a pitch is thrown, and you do it again, I'm going to get real sensitive to offensive time outs for the rest of the game. But if you want to talk to batter and runners while defensive coach is talking to a pitcher, help yourself.

Well he only gets one an inning, I'll say I'll be sensitive to that!

In High School he gets one an inning. In OBR it's until he abuses the privledge. The umpire can stop him, as DG just said, because it is a point not covered in the rules.

It should be a rule in any league that uses time limits for games.

The worst rule ever invented for saving time is "run for the catcher". They are never ready, even if run for.

I was on bases last night. Catcher was run for. When half inning was over, catcher and pitcher are in the dugout for at least a minute. Catcher is putting gear on, pitcher is taking a break because there is nobody to throw to. They come out together and then my partner let's them take another minute and a half taking 5 warmups. I would have told the catcher to throw the first pitch down...

Poor game management.