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Babe Ruth Rules
Got an email with this situation, just checking to see what the experts think.
Runner at second, 1 out. Fly ball to left fielder that is caught. Runner at second thinks 2 outs and runs to third. Defense throws ball to third and runner is tagged and BU signals safe. Reasoning is that the player is on the base. When ball is thrown to pitcher, runner goes back to second to tag up and ball is of course thrown away and runner heads back to third. The defense then wants to appeal he left early. What a mess this sounds like. Could the runner have been called out when tagged at third?? Thanks in advance. |
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Tim. |
Yes, Runner can be tagged on appeal.
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I'm not sure I agree with Tim that this is an unmistakable appeal. |
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Tim. |
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The umpire in this case actually made the right call here. He called the runner safe at third base, which he was. The umpire is never to give away an appeal play to the defense. By not making any call, he quite possibly could have alerted the defense that something was amiss. Without proper appeal the runner would be safe at third.
The onus is on the defense to properly appeal. It is not the umpire's responsibility to read the defense's mind. The runner would have been out on the tag at third had the defense verbally (or otherwise made the appeal unmistakeable) said that they were appealing that the runner left early. |
I can see how this might not be an unmistakable appeal: runner trots over to 3B, throw comes in from LF just after him, quick tag applied as he goes in standing, ball thrown in to F1.
If the runner never made it back to 2B to retouch, the appeal would still be granted, even after F1 threw the ball away. (It's unclear in the OP whether he ever retouched.) |
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Tim. |
Folks, this play illustrates the concept of relaxed versus unrelaxed actions as outlined in the Jaksa/Roder Manual. Unfortunately, the original poster didn't give us quite enough information to make a decision about whether this tag of R2 constituted an unmistakable act of appeal.
If R2 is inactive and standing on third, it is relaxed action and the tag can be interpreted as an unmistakable act of appeal. The tag could not be mistaken for anything but an act of appeal. If R2 is still in the act of trying to reach third base and the throw is on its way, then the tag can easily be mistaken for an attempt to put out R2 because he is in jeopardy. Therefore, it is not an unmistakable act of appeal. |
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