Experienced the world's most suspenseful/hilarious double play last night at 9/10 LL tourney. 1 out, R1 on 3, B3 hits tall fly to left. R1 watches it fly overhead and takes off for home. Wobbly F7 makes the catch to everyone's amazement. Crowd erupts in cheers, defensive bench erupts in cheers and coaches direct throw to 3rd to double off R1. F7 is stunned by the catch and the noise and takes forever to finally throw the ball - but to F6 and not F5. Now it's F6's turn to be confused by the yelling, eventually tossing to F1 on the mound. F1 turns to her (1st base) bench to face the cacaphony of shouts and pointing, but takes at least another twenty seconds before the unison chanting of "3rd base, 3rd base" from the bench sinks in. (Give defensive coach credit for organizing the chant.) Meanwhile, R1 has crossed home and headed for 3rd base bench excited about scoring, but slows and eventually stands stock still just outside the dugout, trying to figure out her own bench's screams and pointing.

The penny drops with R1 just as the light comes on over F1's head. It's a (delayed!) race to the bag. F1 is a step behind but waits until they are both just a few feet away before she tosses to F5 who has been waiting patiently for the throw the whole while. No bobble on the catch. OUT!

Home crowd erupts again in cheers, rest of defense finally figures out the inning is over - even if they don't quite understand the nature of the slow-motion double play. It must have been over a minute from the crack of the bat to the out at 3rd.

After PU and I stopped laughing, defensive coach asked me if R1 had beat the throw back to the bag whether she would have been out anyway because of her failure to retouch home on the way back to 3rd. I told him yes, but waking up this morning am rethinking how that would work.

What do you say? First, does she have to retouch home before getting back to 3rd. And second, how do I make the call? Would it be similar to a close play at 1st on the BR, where if BR beat the ball I call "Safe" until defense appeals that BR missed the bag? An appeal on an appeal?


Nick

Nick,

In answer to your questions:

Yes, the runner must retouch home on her way back to 3rd.

As for your ruling, if she beats the throw back to 3rd, your immediate call is SAFE. In any league other than LL, I would immediately call TIME, so all the screaming about how she didn't touch home could be treated as a dead-ball appeal. Unfortunately, LL does not allow dead ball appeals, so the defense must either tag the runner or that missed base with a live ball while making the appeal.

SamC

Still? Tragic!

Ah, the good ol' classic 7-6-1-5 double play. Haven't seen one of those in a while. :D