Unsafe catcher

[Rich Ives]

Originally Posted by cookie

"...What particular BR rule do you use?..."

Babe Ruth has in place for all divisions the "Contact Rule":

"If a runner attempting to to reach home plate intentionally and maliciously runs into a defensive player in the area of home plate, he will be called out on the play and ejected from the game. The objective of this is to penalize the offensive team for deliberate, unwarranted, unsportsmanlike action by the runner for the obvious purpose of crashing the defensive player, rather than trying to reach home plate. Obviously this is an umpire's judgement call (emphasis mine)."

In the OP, obviously HTBT, a decision has to be made by PU whether it was accidental or deliberate. Also, even it there were no play going on at the plate as in the OP, the runner should be ejcted if he were trying to "crash the catcher." However, I'm a little stuck on whether to score the run or not since there was no actual play at the plate (which appears to be required by the contact rule: "on the play"). I'd probably not record the out and score the run.

Babe Ruth is obviously trying to keep kids from emulating MLB collisions at the plate...

You emphasized the wrong thing. I corrected it. Now what?

[Rich Ives]

Bottom line for some seems to be it's OK to play in the street because it's the car's fault if you get hit.

[DG]

Originally Posted by Rich Ives

Bottom line for some seems to be it's OK to play in the street because it's the car's fault if you get hit.

I don't get the analogy. Seems to me like some are saying it is not our job to tell you not to play in the street because you might get run over by a car.

[MikeStrybel]

Originally Posted by Rich Ives

Bottom line for some seems to be it's OK to play in the street because it's the car's fault if you get hit.

?

An umpire enforces the penalties when rules are broken. As others have suggested, an umpire who tells a player to get out of the way, pick up a bat, don't apply a tag so hard is being an OOO. You create an advantage for one team when you influence the outcome of a play. I am reminded of a partner who bit off a bit more than he could chew during a college game a few years ago. The first baseman was a goon. He spit on the feet of runners leading off first. If a guy would slide back on a pick off attempt, he would slap the mitt down hard enough to cause tempers to flare. He loved it. A partner thought he could handle this player through 'preventive umpring'. vefore the game he told him to behave and not slap the mitt on opposing players. After the first time he did it, my partner casually warned him that he wouldn't allow him to keep doing it. An inning or two later the guy slapped the mitt hard on the diving runner's helmet. My partner told him that if he did that again he was going to be ejected. The next pick off saw the fielder slap his mitt hard into the runner's midsection instead. My partner fumed and the fielder smirked knowingly. From then on, he slapped hard tags to different parts of the runner.

Enforce the rules, no need to coach.

[spiritump]

Originally Posted by Rich Ives

Bottom line for some seems to be it's OK to play in the street because it's the car's fault if you get hit.

how would you feel if a ump told you how to coach??? coaches coach
umps ump and players play--that is the way it is.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by Rich Ives

Bottom line for some seems to be it's OK to play in the street because it's the car's fault if you get hit.

Pretty close, Rich. I'm not being paid to tell players where to stand.

[MrUmpire]

+1

[cookie]

Originally Posted by Rich Ives

You emphasized the wrong thing. I corrected it. Now what?

I assume all runners are trying to reach the plate. A decision has to be made whether the ensuing collision as depicted in the OP was "accidental or deliberate" with regard to the Babe Ruth baseball and its "Contact Rule", thus the emphasis on umpire's judgement call