Baserunner physically assisting another runner
 

Play situation:

NFHS Baseball Rules

R1 on 1B ... Batter-runner hits ball deep to right center ... R1 thinking ball will not be caught starts for 2B ... then realizes ball may be caught and retreats hard back towards 1B ... By this time batter-runner rounds 1B ... looks up and sees he is about to pass R1 ... batter-runner reaches out and grabs R1 ... preventing him from being passed ... Without the grab ... R1 would have definately been passed by batter-runner ...
Any rule to cover another runner who physically assist ... all I can find is a coach cannot ... Thanks for your help ...

According to Jim Evans ... no rule exist for this to be a physical assist ... In fact ... he stated that a "dead man" once scored a run !! Runner collapsed before getting to 3rd ... following runner picked him up and scored him first & then touched plate himself ... Discovered that collapsed runner was in fact "dead" ... but the run counted !!

Is this a TRUE story?

Matbe.

Maybe not.

Illustrates the rule properly though.

I'm currently down in Florida attending the Jim Evans' Florida Classic - a 4 1/2 day classroom, field, and cage training clinic (12/27 thru 12/31) at the Osceola Sports Complex in Kissimmee. I spoke with him today about this aforementioned event and he confirmed that it indeed did happen during a college level game...

cookie, I'll be interested to hear your thoughts on the clinic...I'm looking at going next year.

Similar to this situation, no?

NCAA Softball Player Carried by Opponents After Injury | Score Board

Does it matter who assists, even the other team? (Technically speaking, of course. I don't know an ump who would enforce any broken rule in this case--if there is one broken.)

No it doesn't matter, and the umpires kicked it in that softball game.

NCAA: "[The] baserunner is out . . . when a member of the offensive team, other than another runner who has not yet crossed the plate, physically assists her while the ball is in play." (Defensive players can apparently assist a runner.) Further, since on the home run the ball wasn't in play, even the offensive team could have assisted her. But without searching through the NCAA book, I would figure that, as in OBR, the offense could enter a substitute runner for a physically incapacitated runner while the ball was dead.

A couple of years ago, ASA clarified their rule, which previously could have been interpreted to include an assist by members of the offense. (The old wording was simply "when anyone other than another runner assists. . . .")

Incidentally, I remember that a while back we discussed whether the physical assist of an OBR runner had to be by the coach at 1B or 3B (the only ones named in the rule). Logic would dictate that the rule would also include a player from the bench as well, just not another runner.

Although its not exactly the same situation as asked about in the OP, its along the same lines I guess.

From September 2005:

TORONTO -- Boston's Gabe Kapler ruptured his left Achilles' tendon while rounding second base on Tony Graffanino's fifth-inning homer during Wednesday night's 5-3 win over Toronto.

Graffanino's ball went over the left-field wall, and Kapler fell to the ground. He got up on one knee but couldn't continue.

After a five-minute delay, Kapler was carted off the field. Alejandro Machado pinch ran starting at second base and finished circling the bases.

"I felt like I got hit at the back of my ankle," said Kapler, who wasn't in pain after the game. "I just had seen the ball go over."

I guess Machado got credit for the run scored. Strange situation.