Killing the play
 

Taken from another site. Pretend some new poster posted this. I want to see if your reaction to his post is similar to what mine was.

Where did U1 get hit? In front of or behind the fielders?

Probably should have left the ball live when F4 got hit (unless there was the possibility of further harm).

I would agree with with both awards. You have rule support for the first situation depending on if U1 was in front or behind F3 and a batted ball that gets by F4 is usually just a single.

No authority for awarding bases because a fielder gets hit with a batted ball. Let play continue (unless serious injury) and then call time to tend to F4.

U1 gets hit before it passes fielders, BR goes to first, afterwards its nothing.

F4 get hit with batted ball, kill play at end of action, (unless kiddie ball) no awards.

U1 was hit in the head.

F4 was a child.

Poster was also being sarcastic in his last question.

Rita

So, what's the rest of the story?

Not enough info for me to give an informed opinion. Would like to know level of play, if this was a tournament game, how hard was U1 hit (glancing vs straight-on), how hard was F4 hit, etc. etc.

And why would U3 kill play when U1 got hit, and then decide on the base award? Unless U3 was some sort of crew chief, the PU should handle these kinds of situations, IMO.

Agree with others. No base awards when an umpire gets hit (unless it happens on a batted ball before the ball reaches a fielder). Umpire judgment when it happens to a fielder, and almost always should the umpires let play continue before calling time to tend to the player.

Poster has not answered follow up questions, so we don't yet know the rest of the story. I don't think he liked it when I mentioned that he probably shouldn't have killed the play in either case. Someone asked if U1 was hit by a batted or thrown ball, but he's not answered that either.

I assumed batted from the OP, but thrown makes more sense if he's had time to be "coming in".

In either case - I think too many umpires want to call time anytime someone appears hurt. Unless it appears that seconds are going to matter and you need life-saving measures, it's almost always a cluster-F when you kill a live ball in a case like either of these.

+1, Unless the fielder/runner/umpire took a shot to the head and has gone down, appendage at a funny angle, or blood; I usually wait until play is relaxed before calling time.

I recall from my playing days starting on first base, watching my teammate belt one to the fence, rounding 2nd, picking up my coach and seeing the windmill, rounding third ... and having to jump over THE BATTER to score. He had broken his leg during the swing. Umpire didn't stop anything (he in fact waited until they had retrieved the ball and gotten it to first base for the out).

If the offensive coach wanted his BR at third "because he would have made it if the umpire never got in the way" as stated in the OP, then it must've been a batted ball.

That's why I mentioned we need more info. Where was U1 at the time? He wouldn't be coming in if this was a throw from the infield. The only thing that makes sense if this was a throw is on a play from F9 going back to first base on a sharply hit grounder. And in that case, no way the BR would make it to third if the ball hadn't hit the umpire.

It sounds more like this was a one-hopper over the bag at first destined for the right field corner, and U1 broke too soon to come in and got nailed.

Obviously we're guessing here... but picture a normal play in the infield, U1 starts to come in and takes his eyes off the ball to look at first - and is hit by the ball. U3 kills the play. As OC, I sure am going to be screaming for 3rd base for my runner, as the errant throw would have ended up in right field somewhere.