What is the correct ruling?

[greymule]

That depends. I've always been taught that if a runner is advancing, there is always a chance that the defense can put that runner out.

You know, that judgment thing.

If we are to treat a throw that hits the on-deck batter as a blocked ball, the same as if it hit offensive equipment lying outside the dugout, then even when in our judgment there was no chance whatsoever for the defense to get an out—in this case even if Abel's foot was coming down onto home plate when the ball hit the on-deck batter—we still have to send the runners back to the last base touched at the time the ball was blocked. Abel has to go back to 3B (and Baker? . . .).

If we take the position that whenever a runner is advancing, the defense has a chance to put that runner out—and therefore every blocked ball with runners advancing prevents a chance at an out—then we would have to call Abel out. If ASA intended that whenever runners are advancing, the defense has a chance for an out, they could have written simply, "If runners are advancing at the time of the blocked ball, the runner closest to home shall be called out, and all other runners shall return to the last base touched at the time of the infraction." I don't think that's what they meant.