Was this an appeal play?
 

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Was this an appeal play?

Thanks.

These videos don't work on some browsers. What happened? I see the caption that Davis missed a tag and then dove to tag the bag before the baserunner... but I don't know anything else. What happened?

The Oakland BR, Suzuki, avoided a swipe tag by Davis who was off the base towards home. Suzuki then ran wide by the bag by a few feet up the first base line and was diving back to reach it when Davis tagged the bag. The U1 ruled the BR out.

Suzuki seemed to be clearly past the bag to me but the action was unrelaxed so maybe tagging the base is good enough in this situation.

I would say, then, that technically this WAS an appeal play, even though it likely looked like a force to everyone else. Was there another runner in the equation that made the difference relevant?

bases empty, zero out,

night game :-)

No other runners, the bases were empty at the time.

Well ... it's an appeal play. But does it matter to anyone other than you, me, Johnny, and the wall?

I expected to see a safe signal by U1 for passing the base, but no signal, then the out on the appeal...have read about the play many, many times, but haven't seen the appeal executed in that manner before.

I don't think the U1 called him out for the appeal, I think he called him out because he had F3 tagging the base before the BR, ie a normal play.

It's a missed base appeal. The runner acquired the base before being tagged because he passed it. Since he missed the base, he was liable to be put out on appeal, which F3 accomplished by tagging the base.

And, the appeal was obvious (i.e., F3's glove didn't land on the base accidentally while trying to make the play).

Honestly, I doubt he thought about the reason for calling the out at all. Had it mattered (2 outs, R3 for example), I'm sure it would have popped into his (and PU's) mind slightly after the call that it was not a force, and was a timing play. Since it didn't matter, I'm sure he just called what he saw - and perhaps mused on it between innings.

I know that it is supposed to be a missed base appeal but I think the U1 simply judged it as a normal "force" play at first.

I was under the impression that with unrelaxed action, the runner had to be tagged. Or is that specific only to plays at the plate?

This is one of the reasons why I posted the question...wondering if it turned into a tag play...

I was thinking the runner needed to be tagged if he is attempting to return to a base he missed. The rule book addresses a runner missing the plate but I don't see anything about other bases. I still think he would need to be tagged.