Batting Out of Order, Volume 2

[youngump]

Originally Posted by MD Longhorn

I'm not "hung up" on it. When BOO is discovered is how rule 7-2-D is written. In fact, the first words of 7-2-D are "If batting out of order is discovered:" and then giving 4 subsections telling us what to do based on when BOO is discovered.

I find no verbiage to indicate that the placement of runners at the beginning of an improper at bat matters at all... just directions on how to determine who the proper batter is, and then directions on what to do if the proper batter IS ON BASE WHEN BOO IS DISCOVERED (the opposite of WAS on base PRIOR to BOO being discovered).

Honestly, what you're saying makes sense, conceptually. And it may be what the rulesmakers intended... it's just not what the rule SAYS.

I don't have a current rulebook in front of me, but I do have an old one. In the old one, only the first three subsections contain the phrase if boo is discovered. From the literal text of that version (2005), I agree that one could read the rule to mean that the time of discovery is when everything is calculated. There are all sorts of problem with this rule if you try and read the text that literally. For example, discovery doesn't mean appeal, so you'll need to find out when the coach noticed not when they appealed. Then you'll note that in 2 it says that if the error is noted before a pitch is thrown or before the fielders have left fair territory. Well, it's almost always the case that it's noted before the fielders have left fair territory [that is it should say and].

I believe the rule is intended to make the previous batters at bat legal at the time of the first pitch. So in this scenario: B2 bats for B1 and gets out. B3 steps up and has a full count. I believe that at this point B3 is a legal batter even if no one ever notices that B2 was out of order. And when B3 hits a single and reaches and the coach saunters up and says B3 was batting out of order the correct batter should have been B2, I'm going to deny that appeal even though by the literal logic of the rule your propounding since B2 was never discovered batting out of order B3 is not the right batter.