From conversations taken from this board, I asked Bob Savoie to confirm interpretations.

One reverses what I offered earlier that others had said they received in their areas. I still doesn't make any sense to me, but if that's what they want, that's what I'll call. On SP stealing, if ANY runner is not moving at the time of the catcher's release, no runner may steal a base if the pitcher catches the ball in the vicinity of the pitcher's plate. This means that both must be moving at the time of the throw, but are not required to keep moving. That means that for R2 to steal 2B when runners are at the corners, R1 must be advancing home at the time of the catcher's throw. That should create some strange and tense situations.

The second confirmed that the rule for assisting a runner who has already scored is in effect during a dead ball period just as passing a runner is in effect during that same period.

Hope that helps.

Mike

I agree it doesnt make sense to me if 1 of the runners is off and running and the other one is not that we send both runners back. Kinda takes the delayed steal play out Huh?

Also thought I would throw this in

The main thing is that we do not call it like we used to because now we may have runners advancing. Need to slow it down.

All three of your possibilities are valid. I lean toward when the pitcher has the ball in the vicinity of the pitching rubber, nothing can happen. So if nothing can happen, time does not need to be called. While working the game, if players keep advancing when the ball is in the vicinity, to speed up the game under these circumstances, I might, every once in a while, call time.

These are things we are looking at that might need to be changed next year. Your input will always be appreciated.



Walt Sparks

This was Walter follow up to a question on when we should be calling TIME now in SP games with stealing. It worked well on trying it in games


Don

That is an awfully general statement that only holds true if the runners were not advancing at the time the catcher released the ball.

Other than that, you are correct.

"I still doesn't make any sense to me, but "

I was that way until I got to thinking, we don't have a "look back" rule in slow pitch so what do we do if one runner is stopped with the ball on the mound? We call time and send him back. Since we have called time any other runners who hadn't reached a new base would have to be sent back as well. As for basing it on the time of the catcher's throw I guess the rational is much the same as on an overthrow.

Think of it this way. Why should a runner on 1B, not be permitted to steal if the runner on 3B never leaves the base? Same thing with a runner on 2B not stealing 3B if the runner on 1B isn't moving?

I would like to see this change next season.

"I would like to see this change next season."

Oh, I see your point but the change would need to be to give us the look back in slow pitch, if not you might as well automatically advance the runner at 1st because the defense has no chance. I think the offense has gained enough already without that too.

R1 at 3rd, R2 on 1st. Catcher throws to the pitcher and R1 takes a big lead and stops. R2 takes off for 2nd. If pitcher throws at 2nd he's giving up a run for sure. Now if we have the look back R1 has to keep moving and hopefully far enough to get picked off or retreat.

Nope, cannot happen that way. The part I would like to see changed is that all runners are handled individually.

If they are not moving when the catcher throws it and the pitcher catches it, they cannot go. If you are not moving at the time of the throw, you cannot steal if the pitcher catches it. In your scenario above, R1 has got to be moving at the time of the throw or they cannot go.

There is no need for a look back as the players are required to be on the base or the pitcher cannot pitch. Once the ball is caught by the pitcher in the vicinity of the PP, and a runner is not moving, the ball is dead.

Of course, they never had these requirements when the A & above were allowed to steal.

I was trying to demonstrate that without a "look back" rule or a dead ball with a stopped runner that stealing 2nd is virtually automatic with a runner on 3rd.

How can we separate them? We can't call a dead ball time on one runner that has stopped but leave things live for the other.

If you want your teammate to steal second then you have to take a chance at being picked off of 3rd.