Sliding Question

[SanDiegoSteve]

Originally Posted by Rich Ives

So as long as the runner slides on the ground in a straight line toward the base and doesn't go past the base he's legal.

So you really could take out the fielder 'cause you won't go past the base.

Yes, provided no raised leg, perfectly legal.

Originally Posted by mbyron

The primary principle of sliding is: a slide is never required by rule, but if a runner slides, it must be legal. No rule prohibits "taking out" a fielder just as such: we have INT for a "take out" only when the slide or contact is otherwise illegal.

A fielder with the ball trying for a tag and a double play is protected from interference, but has no "special" protection: we are not absolved from judging whether the contact was legal by the fact that there's a double play at stake. There's no "automatic" interference here on that account.

The slide described is legal, even though it has no chance of reaching the base. As I said, the runner might simply have been avoiding the tag. I see nothing in the description that violates the slide or FPSR rules. If the contact is legal, then we play on.

Very well stated.

Originally Posted by jicecone

The runner sliding at the bag is trying to get to the bag. The fielder sometimes is there and contact occurs and the rules allow for that contact as long as not malicious. A runner sliding anywhere else is also legal however if he does it somewhere that interferes with a fielder making a play, I am calling him out and getting the double if possible. (Fed)

In the NABA league I umpire, we use the NCAA FPSR, and I've had to call it twice this season (since 2/26), once as PU and once as BU:

As PU, R1 slid straight in to the base, but late, and plowed into fielder past the base. Easy INT call.

As the BU, R1 slid to his right, directly at F6 coming across the bag, in an obvious take-out attempt.