tag pushes foot off of the bag

[GA Umpire]

Originally Posted by RichMSN

If the force of a mere tag knocked the runner off, well, too bad for the runner. A push wold be a whole 'nother story.

I agree with this. Whose to say the runner's momentum didn't carry him off the base? Also, being tagged like that is part of baseball.

Hrbek's was a bad call. It sounds like Rollins' play was a good call(I have not seen it). If it happened while the runner is still sliding in, then it is part of the play and whatever happens, happens. Hrbek was pulling Gant(big difference b/c Gant's momentum clearly wasn't doing this and the play part was over in my judgment).

[SanDiegoSteve]

I saw it as it happened, then saw numerous replays. Bob Scanlon even said that in real time, it looked like Gonzales' momentum carried him off the base, combined with the angle the umpire had that blocked his view of Gonzales' foot. In slow motion you can see that Gonzales got his foot back on the base, under control, with no momentum going away from the base. The tag was clearly applied with the intention of pushing him off the base. It was a very tough call in the real speed in which it happened. At first looked, I was calling it with the umpire, but in hindsight it appeared an intentional push off by Rollins.

[bossman72]

Interesting trivia:

There is NO RULE that says a fielder cannot force a runner off the base... yet, we enforce it this way. Always thought that was kinda funny...

[Rich]

Originally Posted by bossman72

Interesting trivia:

There is NO RULE that says a fielder cannot force a runner off the base... yet, we enforce it this way. Always thought that was kinda funny...

I would simply call time. No award of bases, no obstruction, just time.

I saw the replay of the Rollins play last night. He pushed him off the base. I only saw the slow-mo, so have no idea what it looked like in real time.