I've been trained to watch to judge for what impetus causes the ball to go out of play, and to judge whether the ball would have gone out of play on its own absent of any subsequent impetus should it be accidentally deflected. In the situation presented, it doesn't appear that the pitch would have gone to DBT as a result of the impetus or absent of the runner's accidental impetus. Under Fed rule I'd see this no different than a fair ball that is hit through F5's legs striking R3 sliding into 3B and being deflected into the 3B dugout.
In Carl's article I would have agreed with him in his ruling but disagreed with him in his statement:
Umpires who write "True" may call with me anytime.
Those who know us would not necessarily expect that statement to apply to
all umpires who agree with him on this issue.........LOL.
Freix
Thu Mar 13, 2003, 03:23pm
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