Double First Base Appeal

[celebur]

Originally Posted by PaREF

After the ball was returned to the pitcher he said to the umpire that he would like to appeal the runner interfering with the first base(wo)man by stepping on the white part of first base instead of the orange part. The umpire said that it was too late for an appeal since the runner had already returned to first base.

Just to clarify:

1) The only logical appeal here would be an appeal for missing the base, and if the runner touched only the white portion (thus entirely missing the orange portion) when a play is being made, then yes, s/he missed the base and may be put out on appeal. But the defense would need to appeal before the runner returned because once s/he has returned, the violation has been corrected and is no longer appealable.

2) Interference is an entirely different animal and is NOT appealable. If the umpire saw interference, he would have ruled it immediately, killed the play, and declared the BR out. But note that simply stepping on the white portion is not automatically interference. As described, there was no interference on this play.