thought about that... seems to me the violation happens when she breaks contact:

In the extreme, say she backs up 3 steps as the ball's coming down, and times it to be stepping on the back the instant the ball is first touched, running at full speed. Absurd of course, but it is the whole point of the rule.
You'd be calling her out 3 steps back, right?

In my case, she was only 4-5 inches back, but that's when the violation occurred.

And I'm wrong... I didn't call her out when she lifted her foot. I decided to call her out when she lifted her foot. I was too busy being astounded that I'm about to call this obscure ruling for the 1st time in my career :eek:

I hope I wouldn't have called it if she didn't take off... we'll never know:)

BTW, does the rule allow for that caveat?

I pulled the book out and looked at the rule...the wording of the rule does bring up some questions, so for the sake of discussion.....

What if the fly ball is not caught? Is this still a violation? The rule seems to suggest that it would be.

What if the runner takes the running start, hits the base after the fly ball is first touched, but only advances a few steps trying to draw a bad throw? Is this still a violation?

I say yes to both. The fly ball part is really irrelevant, any behind a base running start in any running sitch is this rule.

NSA has wed this to the rule requiring a runner to tag up prior to advancing on a caught fly ball and the effect requires an appeal

Not a question, rule is specific that it applies on "any fly ball".

And yes. As noted above, the effect is out when this occurs on any fly ball