Sea @ Tex-Foul or not?
 

Baseball Video Highlights & Clips | SEA@TEX: Wilson believes he fouled off strike three - Video | MLB.com: Multimedia

No way to tell. I was surprised the catcher waited so long to tag him.

I have never seen a Major League game end like this.

The PU called him out when he left the dirt, right?

I noticed that as well. Good call on the dirt circle. Tough to tell (or hear with all the fans cheering) on the foul ball .

Was that always the ruling or did that come about after the White Sox/Angels Deal-e-o in a few years ago?

Of course, Joe West did not ask for help on THIS one
 

Baseball Video Highlights & Clips | WSH@MIL: Riggleman's tossed in the top of the third - Video | MLB.com: Multimedia

Nice Ejection mechanics, though!

How could there not have been a sound of bat hitting ball?

West doesn't mail it in quite as glaringly as McLelland, but Joe's best days as an umpire were spent in another whole millennium.

Even if he did foul it off...his actions showed me that he swung and missed. He barked at the umpire when he realized he ended the game and should've ran it out. PU waited until the exact moment he left the circle as the rule states.

After Josh Paul screwed up. Before that, the rule was the batter could run to first anytime before entering dead ball territory.

If he fouled it, how could his actions show you he did something else?

If he DID foul it , wouldn't he have acted exactly how he did? I think the catcher must have heard a foul because he did not go tag him until the pitcher told him to.(not sure if that was in this clip or the mlb .tv archive that I looked up)

I think that if he actually swung and missed, he would have been more likely to run. The ball had bounced somewhere, he did not know where...why would he not run? He had a better chance to make first safely somehow than to fool the umpire, didn't he? I would think that fooling the umpire on a play like this is going to happen VERY infrequently...an overthrow to first happens WAY more often than that.

I used to think in my first or second year that player reactions normally indicated what happened (ball of the foot, etc.) until I saw that youtube with the OK player who acted like he was HBP immediately, and replays showed he wasn't. Players have gotten used to trying to buy the call right away.

It seemed like the way Saltalamacchia scrambled for the ball right away that he at least didn't assume a foul ball, so it was probably indistinguishable to anybody but the batter. And as stated above, I don't necessarily believe him, but don't disbelieve him either. No different than a close banger to end the game I suppose.

I am not saying I believe the batter at all...I am just trying to figure it out. Go figure....:D

Hard to tell if he did, but he should of as soon as he abandoned the effort to goto first.

Can you please give a rule number for the change. I read thru the rules published by MLB and do not find a reference to a batter being called out for leaving the dirt area after he has swung at a pitch. I did find language regarding a batter leaving the dirt area if he didn't swing which is to keep him from delaying the game. Thanks

6.09(b) CMT

Never mind I found it, thanks
Rule 6.09(b) Comment: A batter who does not realize his situation on a third strike not caught, and who is not in the process of running to first base, shall be declared out once he leaves the dirt circle surrounding home plate.

You are too fast for me.