out of baseline at home plate

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by gordon30307

Watching the Cubs vs. Mets yesterday evening Hill the Cubs catcher has the ball well before the Mets runner reaches the plate and is bracing for the collision. The runner runs around Hill who lunges for him and misses and Hill loses the race to the plate. Any other base and the runner probably is called out for being out of the baseline. I had no problem with the call but I was just wondering how far in the vicinity of the plate must the runner go before he would be called out for being out of the baseline? I know more leeway is given around the plate but how much?

1) 3.000001 ft.
2) .000001 ft.

In my amateurish opinion, not being anywhere near good enough to make calls like this at the major league level, I would say that if the catcher had to lunge more than 3 feet away from a direct line between the runner and the plate, that he should have been called out for being out of the baseline.