Is there a hole in 8-7-J

[NCASAUmp]

Originally Posted by rwest

If you enforce the penalty for interference and award the BR 1st base, you can't then call them out on a subsequent application of the penalty. That's similar to an Ex Post Facto law, in which you punish some one for a past activity that is now a crime but wasn't when it was performed. Once we enforce the penalty for interference and place BR on 1st, we are done. We can't go any further.

We can't use the awarded bases rule either. The rules stating that we must allow the runners to complete their base running responsibilities are in regard to missed base or base left early. We allow them to correct their mistake BEFORE awarding the bases. There is no mistake in this case to correct. We are awarding 1st because of the interference. There is nothing we are required to allow the runner to do before we award them 1st base.

I'm leaning toward Steve's method. I'd word it differently though. I'd just say the intent of the rule does not preclude getting the BR out. The black and white written word may, but not the intent.

Be careful with how far you go with using the "intent" of a rule. While I do agree with you that we should call the BR out in this sitch, there are times when some umpires stretch rules to match what they believe their intent is. ASA has gotten more and more strict with letter-of-the-law interpretations, as they can often be our only salvation.

When there's no room left for interpretation in the application of the rules, we, as umpires, stand on firmer ground.