Restricted to dugout?

[jicecone]

Originally Posted by Robert E. Harrison

How would you rule on the runner coming to home and his cleats dig into the hard dirt around the plate area as him starts his slide and he bowls over the catcher. The catcher of course has the ball and is waiting to apply the tag.

Not quite sure what your saying here. If he is sliding then it must be a legal slide. Are you saying that his cleats dig in so hard that his body pops up and bowls over the catcher? Like stuck in the mud? I have never ever seen ANYTHING like that. But for discussion lets just say it happened.

Did the runner use and/or extend his arms when contact was made? Was it just a clumsy collision between two players? The umpire has to make those decisions and rule accordingly. Just because two players collide, it does not mean that the contact was malicious or intentional. When two people try occupy a less than 2-SF area anywhere, at the same time, let alone on a playing field, contact almost always happens.