Probably a Dumb Question

[FGBOOF]

I am a baseball umpire who is helping coach a collegiate softball team this season and I just had an NCAA rules question.

With two outs and a runner of first, can the batter-runner advance to first on a dropped third strike?

I know you can in baseball, but the wording the NCAA rulebook seemed a bit confusing to me. Thanks in advance for your help.

[Skahtboi]

Yes. And yes, their wording here is a little "hinky"

[greymule]

hinky = syntactically and grammatically faulty

NCCA wording:

When with two outs or fewer than two outs and first base is unoccupied, the catcher fails to catch a third strike before the ball touches the ground.

Correct wording:

When with two outs, or with fewer than two outs and first base unoccupied, the catcher fails to catch a third strike before the ball touches the ground.

[CecilOne]

Originally Posted by greymule

hinky = syntactically and grammatically faulty

NCCA wording:

When with two outs or fewer than two outs and first base is unoccupied, the catcher fails to catch a third strike before the ball touches the ground.

Correct wording:

When with two outs, or with fewer than two outs and first base unoccupied, the catcher fails to catch a third strike before the ball touches the ground.

Amazing how powerful, useful and effective a single comma is.

[Dakota]

In another 10 years punctuation will be obsolete in ordinary daily written communications. Just consider the last 10 years - email to IM to text messaging - and what it has done to accepted syntax, spelling, and grammar of the written word.

I won't be long before teaching such things in our schools will be as obsolete as teaching Latin is now.

[greymule]

Just consider the last 10 years - email to IM to text messaging

The father of one of my daughter's friends called the cell phone company to find out why his bill was outrageously high. Customer service explained that it was the text messages that had been sent on his daughter's line. When he pointed out that he had purchased the "media package" option that covered a monthly 1,200 text messages, they informed him that his daughter had sent 2,093.

I've also had to caution my own daughter about going over her 1,200 limit. (The girls are best friends; I'm sure many of the messages are to and from each other.)

In a 30-day month, 2,093 text messages is almost 70 a day. I haven't seen any of the messages, but I strongly suspect that these girls don't open the "character map" to insert a comma when formal English requires one.

I've seen them send text messages. They open the phone, hit the keys with incredible speed, and send the message, all within a few seconds.