Administer This Play

[Dave Reed]

For JJ's original situation, some posters have suggested an immediate out call is appropriate. I think not making an immediate call is superior. An immediate call is not necessary-- if it were strike two, no subsequent action is possible. But if it were ball 4, then the runner, who has been called out, may well step off the base, perhaps on his way to the third base dugout, and could be tagged again by an alert fielder. Now he really is out, and everybody has seen that he is out. Yet, by making an immediate out call, BU is obliged to try to "fix" it. It's poor game management in my opinion. The unfortunate reality is that BU does not know if the runner is out or instead not liable to be put out. Why on earth would he make a call?

A pre-emptive reply to those who feel that it is the runner's responsibility to know the situation and he therefore deserves to be tagged out if leaves the base after being spuriously called out:
1) If you don't know whether the last pitch was a ball or strike, how should he know?
2) Regrettably, some umpires regard a runner staying at the base after being called out as having "shown them up." A player may have learned the hard way to quickly vacate.

[lawump]

This reminds me of a great play (related to this thread, but not directly on point) from MLB about 6 years ago. Kerwin Danley was the second base ump. The Yankees were on defense...don't remember who they were playing.

R1, three balls on the batter. R1 takes off on the pitch, F2 fires down to second. R1 does a head first slide on the outfield side of second. R1's momentum carries him so that he ends up two or three inches past second base, with his hand out-stretched trying to reach back to second. F6 (Jeter) applies the tag. R1 then gets back on the bag.

Danley then looks back to the plate umpire and sees that he called "ball", so he doesn't signal "safe" or "out", but rather just tells F6 that it was ball four.

However, Jeter then argues that R1 over-ran (overslid) second base while advancing on the walk...which R1 is not allowed to do without being liable to being put out...After about 30-seconds Danley realizes that Jeter is right and gives the out signal...causing a serious WTF moment for everyone else in the ball park.

Even as a Red Sox fan...got to give credit to Jeter for being the first player in the history of MLB to actually know the rules.