ASA Men's C Div. Live Ball Question

[AtlUmpSteve]

Originally Posted by HonoUmp

I have been an ASA Umpire for more than 20 years and in all my time of playing and umpiring, I have never seen what happened in a game I called over Labor Day weekend. ASA Rules, live ball with stealing allowed. Runner on second base, pitcher throws a pitch which was a strike. (ball still live). Catcher returns ball to pitcher and overthrows pitcher. Instead of running, the runner on second base steps off his base and picks up the ball and throws it back to the pitcher. OK, what is the call? Just a dead ball when touched? Or is the runner out for coming off his base and touching a live ball? Or something else? I don't know the answer and cannot find it addressed at all in the ASA rules book. Help please.

So, you cannot find this addressed in the rule book. So the next step is to consider what IS an actual rule.

A runner is out when the runner is tagged with a live ball in possession of a defensive player when off the base. That didn't happen.

A runner is out when the runner interferes (paraphrase here) with a play, defined as an attempt to make an out. That didn't happen.

Nothing in the category of "A Runner is Out When" has occurred. Therefore, one should conclude that the runner is not out.

What does apply? Blocked ball (albeit not exactly in that definition). Dead ball; move on.