Player Leaving first base

[outathm]

Originally Posted by xtremeump

One other thing on this. The umpires could also take some responsibility in this.

This is a great quote, I like your whole quote but this stands out to me. We must wait untill all playing action has stopped and F1 has control of the ball in the circle. Great topic for the lower levels. Game Management, this is where you learn that. when you go pro like some posters you have no problems like this. Thank You

I often tell other umpires that the teams have someone allowed to stand on the field of play to tell them what to do. We are not responsible for their actions. When a coach tells his player to return to the Plate, the umpire is not in any way responsible to tell her otherwise. When the coach tells a girl to steal, it is not my responsibility to tell her that she isn't fast enough.

I watched the play until the ball was in the circle and the runner returned to 1B. The runner took a roundabout route back to 1B, but at no time did she run out of the base line to avoid a tag, and she was not off the bag and not moving when the ball was in the circle. I cannot think of a way to get an out, no matter how hard I tried. Please trust me, in a 15-1 ball game in the third inning, I was trying to find a way to get an out!