Scoring the play (FED)
 

I know most of us don't worry about how a play is scored but here are a couple situations that was brought up to me a week ago. I've been chewing on the situations and different with the official book on what it was ruled.

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Situation #1:

R1 on first with one out. BR bunts the ball to the left side of the infield for an obvious sacrifice. The F5 (or F6) {I don't remember which fielder:o) plays the ball and attempts to retire R1 at second base unsuccessfully. In the judgment of the official scorebook, BR would have been safe even if the initial putout would have been attempted at 1st.

Official Scorebook:

FC + Sac for the batter-runner.

My interpretation:

A sacrifice bunt, by definition, is "...a bunt which enables any runner to advance...[T]he result is the batter-runner being put out before he reaches first base, or would have resulted in his being put out if the batted ball had been fielded without error..." (FED 2-31) Therefore, since an error did not occur and the BR was not put out, this is just a plain old FC or infield hit. Since the scorebook, in his opinion, thought the BR would have made it to first successfully, I would determine it to be a 1b BU.

Your thoughts?

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Situation #2:

R1 on second and R2 on first with one out. (a) F1 throws a wild pitch that skips past the catcher. (b) F2 fails to stop a pitched ball that in the scorebook's opinion could have been stopped with ordinary effort (in other words, there is a PB). In both cases, R1 and R2 attempt to advance after seeing the pitch evade F2. F2 hustles back to the ball and fires a blazing shot to F5 to retire R1. "You're out of there!"

Official Scorebook:

R1: 2-6 WP/PB
R2: advances on FC

My interpretation:

By definition, a PB "...is a pitch which F2 fails to stop of control when he should have been able to do so with ordinary effort, and which enables a runner including the BR to advance." (FED 2-26) Since a runner was retired on the play, I don't believe you can charge a PB to F2 no matter how you look at it.

"A wild pitch is one which cannot be handled by [F2] with ordinary effort" (FED 2-41). However, I think one could argue a PB has occurred even though R1 has been retired.

I would rule this as follows, however:

R1: 2-5 CS
R2: Advanced on the play

Any thoughts?

-Josh

R1 = 1B
R2 = 2B
Fed = Blah
Scoring = umpires don't care

Hear hear.

The only time I care about "scoring" is when it is the bottom of the ninth.

For instance if the home team is down by a run I say, "please be scoring none or please be scoring two!"

scenario 1 = fielder's choice

scenario 2 = advanced on the wild pitch/passed ball.

but the above posters on here are correct...most umps don't really care about how plays are scored.

I know umpires don't care but I was just curious if anyone had any thoughts on it. I told the scorer something similar but a little more subtly :p

-Josh

Someone on eteamz (Atlanta Blue, maybe?) does a lot of scoring, so he might be of some help.

There used to be a site called something like baseballscorecard.com where this kind of stuff was debated. You might see if it's still around.

Thanks Bob-

I appreciate the help. Really I was just curious. I'm not too concerned about it. Thought I would just throw it out there and see if anyone had an opinion.

-Josh