Home Run Hug
 

U16 game ... Batter hits a home run ... as she approaches home plate, her teammates & male 1B coach wait for her. Just before the BR enters the 3B batters box, the 1B coach jumps forward, picks her up in a bear hug (awkward), and carries her across home plate. Your call?

There isn't really any "call" for me to make here. Let's get a new ball to the pitcher and get the next batter in the box.

Don't be an OOO, Overly Offensive Official. If it really bothers you, quietly speak to the HC for the team and ask her/him to let a runner touch all bases before celebrations begin.

Make sure you see her touch home plate, then as Bret said, toss a new ball to the pitcher.

I think "carries her across home plate" in the OP meant she did not touch.

Position yourself to see the touch, remind all nearby teammates that she needs to be seen touching the plate.

While I agree with the "no call" here (assuming she touched the base or if she missed it there was no appeal)...

But what, then, do you do when the opposing coach comes out to ask you why we didn't call an out for the coach assisting their player?

"Coach, runner's assistance violations only occur during a live ball. Any other questions?"

Of course, different rule sets treat this a little different. I believe coach's assistance can also occur when a runner misses a base and the coach physically assists him/her back to the base. But that's not what happened here.

:) If I'm your coach, that isn't going to fly, as it's simply not true.

I suspect I would say something more like - "Coach, he did not assist her in reaching the base - in my judgment she would have reached it without his help... if anything, he hindered her."

More than likely, this doesn't come up anyway --- and for the record, if I WAS the coach in this situation, I would not have approached you to ask about it anyway. :)

NCAA: 1st time - team warning; 2nd time - batter-runner is out.

ASA 8.7 THE RUNNER IS OUT
E. When any offensive team member, other than another runner, physically assists a runner while ball is live.

I know D1 umpire that called batter out that hit an outa the park HR in a HS playoff game when teammates came out to celebrate and high-five. It cost that team a run, and they lost by one run.

high five does not = assist

Runner out for having an idiot for a coach... ;)

Who said anything about assist?

Well, then that the hell did he call the runner out for?

Usually when this idiotic call is improperly made, it is because the umpire doesn't understand that in almost every code: 1) the ball must be live; and 2) contact between a player and coach does not, in and of itself, equal assistance.

Moreover, EVEN in NCAA, it isn't an out the first time anyway. It is a warning. So even if the NCAA umpire applied an NCAA rule in a high school game, he didn't even do that correctly.

I hope his partner stepped in to get the rule right.

You imply that there is a proper way to make this idiotic call. :)

I dunno, Mike. There is no requirement to assess whether or not the runner would have reached a base without the coach's assistance. Any touch of a runner during a live ball should be deemed illegal, even if it did more hindrance than assistance.

No one really knows. Even the partners still are unsure now. The announcer announced it was for over celebration, so perhaps unsporting behavior. Dunno, I was not there, and the scoop from partners were that umpires did not get together for the call, and no post-game, they each went straight to their cars afterwards. It was never discussed or brought up amongst them ever again AFAIK or was told.

No, no, a thousand times no. I had that partner just a week ago that insisted the coach high-fiving a girl that just hit a single and was almost back to the base as the ball was being thrown back to the pitcher should be called out. NO NO NO NO NO.

I think I have worked with that guy before. :D

Okay, okay, perhaps I generalized too much. I shouldn't have said ANY touch of a runner, period.

I meant any touch of a runner that is designed to help her run the bases. That includes pushes, pulls, grabs, trips, pats on the back (to signal when to take off on a tag-up following a caught fly ball), etc. Whether or not the runner would have made a base minus that touch is immaterial.

I agree with that... but I don't think the hug was "designed to help her".

Generally agreed until this statement. This one too general for me.

How do you judge if she was "assisted" if you won't consider that the touch may or may not have been a factor in her baserunning?

Steve, I was talking of "that touch" that helps the runner, per my previous sentence. I honestly cannot envision a scenario where a coach touches a runner to help her, and we still have to judge if the runner would have achieved the base without that touch. The rule isn't like the obstruction rule where we can essentially ignore the infraction if it ends up having zero impact on the play. Any touch to help the runner should be called assistance.

+1

On this statement alone: An assist need not be intentional, nor "designed" to aid a runner. Something as simple as a coach pushing a player off or away from him/her can be an assist even though some may consider it just a matter of protecting oneself or untangling from each other.