Rundown: 6-3-2-5-1-5-3-6
 

Rec league rundown the other night, I was the plate ump.

Runner on third, 0 outs. Got the batter-runner first, then went to the plate, where the rundown occurred. Busiest rundown I've had in years, though I'm sure there are some toppers out there.

It being rec league, I'm surprised they were able to successfully pull it off!

Cynic ! :p :D

Experience! :D;)

Had one last night that lasted longer I'm sure, but wasn't as complicated.

Runners at second and third. Ground ball to SS. Runner from third comes home. Runner from second starts going to 3rd and the coach yells at him to go back to 2nd when he is halfway to 3rd. SS is still holding the ball and throws to 2nd baseman who is on the base, but drops the ball. Runner realizes that he has been "forced" at second just stops. The 2nd baseman just stands there with the ball and doesn't attempt to tag the runner. The runner turns around and starts slowly walking toward the 3b dugout which has it's entry directly in line with second and third bases. Finally, the coach of the defense realizes no out has been called and has his 2nd baseman throw to third, which is overthrown bounces off the fence and the 3rd baseman has to go get it. He walks over and tags the still clueless runner (and the runners coaches are just as clueless) who still hasn't even gotten to 3rd base yet, at which point I call and out.

This was a boys 4th grade game. The "rundown" took about a minute to complete. The runner is this game was nicknamed the sloth by my partner because he caught two innings and moved about as fast as a sloth, allowing my partner to get drilled in the arm, facemask, toes (he didn't wear plate shoes), and several other places including just east of the lower region (no cup either he later told me).

The problem first started when we had two umpires show for a girls 6th grade softball game and the teams were boys 4th grade baseball teams. Our supervisor said to just umpire the game with 2 umps rather than the normal one who would work the game.

Ah the joys of youth rec (wreck) league baseball where the majority of players are new and the coaches are just as new and clueless.

My partner almost ejected the guy who was the 3rd base coach on the rundown later. He kept making snide under his breathe comments about the strike zone and finally said one a little to loud. My partner and I both heard it and he was basically told he could sit in the dugout and be quiet or leave. He tried getting another word in and gave up, then in pure sportsmanlike manner refused to go to the handshake line with the team at the end of the game. He went over and was complaining about the terrible umpiring all game long to the teams fans.

Did Steven King help you write this one? ;)

OK, slight hijack (to the only active thread :))

The ol' obstruction call:
Say, in that prolonged rundown, runner is obstructed going toward home, maybe 10' from the plate. Might've been tagged out at home regardless (by the back-up fielder).
But, runner reverses direction, a few more throws back & forth, eventually tagged out by a hair sliding into 3B.
HTBT sure, but generally, with that sort of continuous rundown, are we protecting the runner to the bag where they finally get tagged?

The Q is whether the runner would have reached home absent the OBS.
Given OBS, the fielder did not have the ball and so whether another fielder before home matters and where the ball is going at the time.

Let's say no other fielder before home, ball still near 3rd, probable award of home.

Let's say ball coming to fielder who OBS and could have had an easy tag; then the judgment is harder, was runner hindered enough that tag could be avoided w/o it.

Surprised you didn't have OBS. especially in a rec league

To start, you are protecting them between the bases where the OBS occurred. Don't confuse "protection" with "award". The two may often be the same, but not always.

The runner is awarded they base s/he would have attained safely had there been no OBS. If the runner would not have scored, you must award 3B.

Actually, I live about three miles from Steven King's house. (He's helped out our community tremendously.)

I failed to mention this is an adult, co-ed rec league. Capability levels certainly vary, and in the OP, the runner had some pretty good speed, and the defense knew what they were doing. We have some people that can play competitively elsewhere, but play in our league for fun.

There's one team that consistently never gets a 10th player to show up, so they always play with nine. And yet, they consistently beat their opponents handily. They have such good arms, they had two put outs in the same inning, 7-4 and 9-4 (with runners on first, of course), and one runner accused us of making the infield too big. (We measured it; it's fine.)

It's a fun league. It's a mile from my home, my son (19) does the bases, and I've only had three ejections in 12 years (two in one night!).

I just had a 6-2-4-2 double play with a run scored :D

Bases loaded.
Ball hit to F6, she throws home-SAFE, run scores.
Catcher throws to F4 covering first, (the batter had stumbled coming out of the box and she was slow)-OUT
F4 throws home to nail the runner from second trying to come all the way around.

Damn shortstops screw up everything :)

Fixed your comment for you. :D