Do you allow the appeal?

[GarthB]

Coincidentally, I was reviewing some old files last night and came across a piece on 4th outs that Bob Pariseau wrote back in the 90's. This portion comes from the umpire manual used at the old Brinkman school which later became known as the J/R. I thought it might be of interest to some.

"If a runner misses home in passing it, AND [emphasis added] returns to touch it, the time he is considered to have touched the plate is when he actually does touch it. If he only passes the plate (failing to touch it), the time he 'touches or passes' the
plate is the time he passes it. E.G: R2, two outs. The batter singles to center field. The throw to the plate is relayed to second base and R2 misses home plate just before the batter-runner is tagged out: R2 is a run unless he becomes out on appeal for missing home. R2 is not a run if he returns to touch home after the out."

In other words, if the defense doesn't appeal and R2 ALSO doesn't return to retouch, the run scores. However, if R2 returns to retouch on his own the run does NOT score (R2 touched home after the third out was made). Thus if R2 returns while the defense is playing on him, he can't possibly score. Even if he evades the tag to retouch home, he'll have done so after the third out at 2B. So R2's only chance is to ignore the fact that he missed home and hope that the defense doesn't appeal his miss.