Men's league, Modified Pitch, R1 on 1b. R1 during windup lifts foot off 1B but makes no move whatsover to leave puts foot back down before F1 releases the ball. I am the BU and make no call. F2 questions me, I said I judged on intent. Technically F2 was right but I was applying the common sense rule. If he even feints toward 2B I got an out.

What says the group.

I'd warn him and call him out the next time.

However, there are times when I don't see technical violations:

In FP, a girl takes ball 4 and goes to 1B and stops. The pitcher gets the ball in the circle. Then, as the runner is positioning her foot on the edge of the base in preparation for the pitch, she briefly disengages by a couple of inches. That one I don't see.

Do you "see" this one, Greymule?
 

ASA Men's FP - F1 has ball near plate (no circle), not ready to pitch yet. R1 on 3B steps off base. As in many cases when players do stupid things that I am not expecting, I am caught off guard and don't say anything. Of course the defense howled, but I pretended not to have seen it. (Normally I don't focus in on the runner until F1 starts to pitch.)

Later same player is on 2B. I watch him. Sure enough, he walks (2 steps) off the base. I call him out and now it's the offensive team howling. Runner, obviously an ex-H.S. baseball player is dumbfounded. Welcome to the world of FP softball, young man!

WMB

Re: Do you
 

When you say that F1 has the ball near the plate, are you referring to the pitchers plate? Does "no circle" mean that there is not a circle chalked on the field? If both of these are the case, I'd have to use judgement to determine if F1 is within the circle. If so, and a runner steps off the base, he's out regardless of what the pitcher is doing.

That being said, I may have reacted the same way you did and been caught off guard and taken a few seconds to realize what just happened.

"When you say that F1 has the ball near the plate, are you referring to the pitchers plate? YES. Does "no circle" mean that there is not a circle chalked on the field?" YES

Actually, that was a big beef by the coach. "You can't call that with no circle. How do we know he is in it."

"Easy coach, he's only 4' - 5' off the pitcher's plate and will within the virtural 16' circle drawn in my mind! Now let's play ball."

WMB

I suspect I would have done exactly as you did in those 2 situations, WMB, although a step off the bag (and certainly 2 steps off the bag) is more than a slight disengagement in positioning the foot.

For an actual full step off the bag, I probably would have called it in a tournament, but in a rec league, a warning would do.