Ejection in middle of play

[PeteBooth]

Originally posted by mattwick

I recently had an interesting scenario present itself. Runners on first and third with one out. The batter hits a ground ball to the shortstop, and the runner on third breaks for home. The runner on third is caught in a rundown, in which a collision occurs as he is retreating to third base while the third baseman had possession of the ball. The base umpire ejected both the third baseman and the runner for raising their elbows during the collision. In the meantime, the runner from third is now between second and third, and the batter/runner is standing on second. The third baseman then throws the ball to the second baseman, who promptly tags out the runner between second and third.

The ruling on the field was that the ball was dead immediately after the two players were ejected, and that all other runners must go back to the bases they last safely occupied. I later looked this up in the rulebook, but could find no mention of it. What do you think?

Im most cases TIME should not be called but allow play to continue and eject AFTER play ends. EXCEPT:

If a fight breaks out, I would call TIME. You see this even in the PROS. F1 pitches one inside and B1 takes offense to this and then all of a sudden, B1 charges F1. You see the PU call TIME immediately.

With the exception of an actual fight on the field, allow play to continue, then eject the offenders.

Pete Booth