Do you allow the appeal?

[D-Man]

The more I think about this play, the less likely I feel it can occur. Runner crosses plate, third out happens and runner comes back to touch home. This touch needs to happen before the infielders leave the diamond. Certainly could happen but not likely. The defense moving off the field is a key element here because if the touch doesn't occur before they are all off, the touch would mean nothing (run would count because the miss wasn't appealed in time) because at some point the half inning has to be considered over. So we are concentrating on the window of time between when the third out is recorded and when the D has left the infield.

In Fed. the runner, after missing home, must return immediately. Immediately is user defined and IMO if he does not (and how could he not within this window of time) his attempt to correct his mistake would be meaningless and it would tip off the defense that they could appeal (of course it could also fool them into thinking they could no longer appeal). The other codes do not make this immediate return a requirement. The touch would still need to occur within this window of time (which as I said would probably need to be considered immediate anyway).

All that being said, I would call it a timing play when the runner reutrned to touch, no run. If the call is protested we've got rules support. You've got to touch the bases. Interpretation-wise we can argue that a touch trumps a pass. All benefit of doubt on a missed base play should go to the defense and all burden of fulfilling the requirments of the baserunning rules should fall on the offense.

D