illegal pitch or not

[AtlUmpSteve]

Originally Posted by drwells1

Irish, I have been doing this for a while, and until the rule was changed a few years back, the runner could not leave the base until the ball was hit. I am not trying to be confrontational but if you are saying that the runner could always leave the bag once the ball reached the plate, I would like some clarification as to why it has not been used before the rule was changed.

For what it is worth, I think you are both (partially) right. I could swear I remember a mid to late 90's rule change 8.7-R from Runner is out when "fails to keep contact with the base to which they are entitled until a pitched ball is batted" to the current "fails to keep contact with the base to which they are entitled until a pitched ball is batted, touches the ground, or reaches home plate."

The earliest rule book I kept is 1999, and it has the latter language, well before stealing was first introduced to ASA slow pitch in 2004. So, it changed before stealing, but there has been a change, according to my memory.