Well, actually, it's completely different. There's a rule that tells us what to do if the base becomes dislodged, and that runner you describe IS safe ... by rule. There is no such rule regarding the plate.

How many non-umpires do you think know that the black edge around the plate isn't part of the plate? Very few is the answer. Every swinging Richard in the non-umpire world would see a runner touch the edge of the plate, irrespective of its color, and say, "that runner touched the plate." Real world application. Call it any differently and you are grabbing the dark brown end of the stick. The world to which Mike is referring does not exist at the level of ball most of us work, and does not include the fields on which many of us must umpire.

Last I checked, ignorance of the rules by the participants involved doesn't change the way we officiate a sport.

Using your logic, we should go ahead and consider the hands part of the bat.

Oh, that's not a leap in logic in itself. Spare me.:rolleyes:

If it were the only rule that ever got bent on a regular basis, this argument might have a chance (if you left out the asinine part about the hands and bat). Umpires routinely "just umpire" and the letter of the rule is often neglected, even by such sticklers for the rules as yourself. I have never heard of such a ridiculous argument, and I will say again that if you would honor an appeal when the runner touched an exposed part of the installed plate, then you would be wrong.

Do you call a major league strike zone in your games? There you go.

Also, look at rule 1.05 closely. It does not one time mention either "black" or the edges not being part of the plate. In fact it says that the "top edges of home base shall be beveled," which clearly identifies the edges as being part of the plate, and if they happen to be above the ground, they are going to be used as "plate."

If you want to adjust whatever rules you want to adjust, do so. But don't do it under the guise of ignorance by the participants. Said another way: the perceived intelligence of everyone should have no impact of how you interpret and enforce the rules.