Batter Returns To Plate After Hitting Fair Ball

[UmpJM]

Originally Posted by jwwashburn

You have got to be kidding! You are going intentionally obstruct a runner?

jwwashburn,

1. By rule/definition, official interpretation, and custom & practice, it is impossible for an umpire to obstruct a runner. Should an umpire impede a runner's progress on the bases, the proper call is "tough noogies".

2. A BR cannot be obstructed while returning to home plate.

So, sure, why not?

Originally Posted by Blue37

JM,

I was the PU and had come out pretty hard toward third to rule on the fair/foul. Foul territory slopes down to the corner of the fence, so I had gone even further after the ball hit to watch for problems, so I was right at third when the ball came back in. The defense did not react to grandpa's shout. The batter was already at the plate area when I first noticed it was him rather than the next batter. Time had not been called, so I just assumed my position, then called time when he took his position. I went to my partner to see if he had sent him back, and he said he had not. I asked if he had touched first and he had, so we called him out for abandonment and scored the run.

Had this occurred down the right field line, an additional point or two might have solved the problem, but that was not possible with the ball down the left field line.

Blue37,

Sometimes the circumstances of the play conspire against the umpire.

However, it is difficult for me to imagine how, in an 18U game, neither the BR, his base coaches, nor any of his teammates on the bench, any of the defensive players on the field, nor any of the defensive coaches could be unaware of the foul/fair status of a batted ball that was "hard hit" and "close to the line" when it landed. And that they would ALL (incorrectly) believe that it had been ruled foul.

Originally Posted by SanDiegoSteve

JM,

I have to go with Joe and Georgia on this one. I'm not going to try to help the runner other than point emphatically fair until he passes my position, and then when he gets to the plate, he's done.

Steve,

I may have employed a bit of hyperbole with my "..block the batter's return..." comment.

But why do you think I was "helping" the runner rather than the defense? Sounds like they didn't have a clue either.

If NOBODY on the field knows that the ball has been ruled fair (despite "grandpa's" declaration that it was so), then I have to conclude that the umpiring was deficient. If you make a call and NOBODY knows it, you didn't really make a call.

This is a "third world play". After reading Peter Osborne's article on the subject....

Officiating.com : Baseball : Third-World Plays Happen Only to Third-World Umpires

I make it a point not to have them in my games.

I too find Joe and GA Ump's suggested ruling correct for the play as posed, as I suggested in my initial post. The point I was trying to make is that you don't want to let it get to that point if you're the umpire. It's a goat rodeo waiting to happen.

I mean, do you want to get in an esoteric discussion with a coach about whether the run scores or not depending on how you decide to call the BR out in this sitch? As I much as I enjoy such discussions, I would not look forward to this one on the field.

Don't let it happen.

JM