Base award on Appeal overthrow

[tjones1]

Thanks JM for the reference. That's what I thought.

[greymule]

Whether the throw is from the outfield or the infield is immaterial, except for first play by an infielder in OBR.

OBR differs from Fed in terms of when the runner can no longer legally return to retouch a base left too soon (unless Fed changed its rule recently).

In Fed, if when the ball enters DBT the runner is on or beyond the base after the one he left too soon, he cannot legally retouch, even if he was already retreating when the ball entered DBT.

[DG]

Great reference.

[BretMan]

Had the exact same play as in the OP a couple of weeks ago (FED game).This was in the late innings of a close game and this runner scored on a hit two batters latter, proving to be the winning run.

After awarding the runner third base, the defensive coach wants time to discuss it. He's adamant that the runner should only get second base because he "left early and has to tag up" and puts up a bit of a fuss. He did tag up, as the ball sailed out of play, and he gets two bases. Sorry, no dice.

Just his being out of the dugout and questioning the call gets the fans on his side aggitated and they're getting pretty animated.

So, the runner eventually scores, nobody scores in the seventh and that's the ballgame- a close loss for one side.

As my partner and I step off the field, two fans corner us about "that play" and want to know why the runner got third. "Because that's the rule", I tell tell them.

We get another few feet and another guy cuts us off to tell us we blew that call. He says he knows the rule "because he plays slow pitch softball"! The guy gets a little belligerant, so we just blow him off.

We get to our cars and some white-haired grandmotherly type comes up and just literally rips us both a new one! She goes off on a rant about how we "robbed the kids" and "it's not fair" and we "should never be allowed to umpire any games again". She's just totally blowing a gasket and laying into us! The sight of this old broad ripping into us was so comical I couldn't help myself and just looked at my partner and laughed.

This was, by far, the worst fan reaction to any call in any game I've been involved with so far this year. The ironic part of it is that we were getting chewed up for making the 100% absolutely correct call!

[tibear]

I was mentoring a brand new umpire last night and one of their questions was, "What's the hardest thing about being an umpire?"

My response was, dealing with coaches, players and fans that think they know the rulebook but in reality, don't have a clue.

In their minds they are 100% correct but if they ever took the chance to actually read the rulebook, they would be surprised about their level of ignorance.