Do you know baseball rules?

[theaub]

Re: Do you know baseball rules?

Forgot the mask. I remember one time a catcher threw his mask during a grounded ball and the mask ended up falling on the ball, stopping it.

It was an accident but the umpire had to rule it a two-base error.


Sent from my mobile device.

I thought it was a three base error for the glove throw?

Some of these scenarios in here are interesting. I've been umpiring for 10 years and I didn't know about the R1/3 fly ball tag up scenario.

Anyhow, off the top of my head here are some of varying difficulty that I've encountered when I umpired. I'll drop back in a bit with the answers.

ANSWERS ARE POSTED UNDERNEATH AS SPOILERS

1) Incredibly sunny day. R3, 1 out. Fly ball into LCF, R3 goes back to tag up. CF loses ball in sun, ends up hitting off the brim of his cap and bouncing in the air, where LF makes the catch. R3 leaves base when the ball hits the CF, and ignores 3rd base coach telling him to come back as he crosses home plate. Defense throws ball into 3rd. R3 safe at home or out on appeal?

Spoiler

I can't find the exact rule, but once the ball is touched by the defense runners can tag up legally assuming they are in the correct tag up position. As such, R3 scores.

2) R2/3, 2 outs. Groundball to SS, who boots it around infield. R3 scores, R2 stays at bag. SS decides to try to be a hero and fires it to first even though batter has already crossed bag. Logically, throw goes about 20 feet over 1B's head and out of play. Place the runners.

Spoiler

Rule 7.05g. For the most part (and in this case), if the ball is thrown out of play by an infielder (first play), runners and batter receive two bases from time of pitch. As such, R2/3 score and B/R goes to second. If R2 had advanced to third before the SS threw the ball, it would have been two bases from the time of throw, and B/R would have been awarded third base.

3) Batter doubles down RF line, and obviously misses first base. Pitcher takes rubber to appeal, but batter takes off from second and gets caught in rundown. After a couple of throws, batter manages to move into third safely. Pitcher takes ball back on rubber and throws to first. Safe at 3rd, safe at 2nd or out?

Spoiler

7.10 appeal rule (remember this doesn't apply only to 7.10d if you look it up). Per the rule, an appeal must occur before the next "play" begins. Per the rules of baseball, an attempted run down constitutes a play. As such, the second the defense attempts to chase the runner the chance to appeal is nullified. In this case, the runner is safe at third. The correct play for the defense is to allow the runner to go wherever he pleases and then appeal to first base. On a side note, if you're a coach, this is a good thing to know, except in most cases the umpire won't know the rule anyways

4) R1, 1 out. Liner to LF who makes diving catch. R1 is already around second and just watches as defense attempts to double him off. However, LF's throw goes over 1B's head and out of play. R1, still standing at second, is awarded third and directly goes there. Pitcher takes the rubber and throws to 1B standing on bag. R1 safe or out?

Spoiler

7.10b. Runner is out as he did not legally tag up. Even though the ball is dead and per 7.05 the runner can advance "without being put out" it is offset by the tag-up rule. This is a fun one.

5) R1, 2 out, bottom of 9th. Visiting team clinging to a 4-3 lead. Pitcher balks on motion to plate (which is noted by umpire), but still delivers pitch. Batter smashes ball up RCF alley. R1 decides to head for home, and is thrown out at plate. What happens?

Spoiler

Rule 8.05. On a balk, each runner is awarded one base, unless a play occurs and the batter reaches first base and all runners advance one base, in which case the play proceeds without reference to a balk. As such, R1 is out and the game is over.

Not surprisingly, I ejected pretty much an entire town after calling this one.

6) R2. Groundball to 2B. SS inadvertently trips R2 as he's heading for third. Ball is thrown away behind first base by second baseman. R2 tries for home and is thrown out in close play. R2 safe or out?

Spoiler

7.06b. As the play was not on R2, it is not called dead. The rule states that once the runner goes beyond the base he would have been awarded due to the obstruction, he advances at his own risk. As such, the answer depends on interpretation of the rule. The runner wouldn't have been given home if he didn't try to score, but at the same time since it was a close play one can assume that he would've scored if not interfered with. In essence the question becomes when to award the obstruction, when the penalty occurs, or at the end of the play? As the runner didn't need to advance home, chose to do so and was not interfered on his way from third to home, I would call him out. This is a judgement call though.

7) R1/2/3. High pop-up to pitchers mound. Umpire calls infield fly, as infield surrounds ball. SS attempts to try to be smart and let it drop, but ball bounces and takes a wicked hop away from SS, and rolls all the way into dugout located halfway up third base line. R2/3 score and R1 goes to second. Batter, upset over poor AB, went directly back to his dugout after ball was hit, and attempts to run back out and takes place at 1B. Place all the runners.

Spoiler

This is a foul ball. While the infield fly was called, it only applies to fair balls, and as this ball crossed the foul line before third base and was touched, it is foul.

[Blzer]

Re: Do you know baseball rules?

I thought it was a three base error for the glove throw?

Some of these scenarios in here are interesting. I've been umpiring for 10 years and I didn't know about the R1/3 fly ball tag up scenario.

Anyhow, off the top of my head here are some of varying difficulty that I've encountered when I umpired. I'll drop back in a bit with the answers.

Let's do this!

1) Incredibly sunny day. R3, 1 out. Fly ball into LCF, R3 goes back to tag up. CF loses ball in sun, ends up hitting off the brim of his cap and bouncing in the air, where LF makes the catch. R3 leaves base when the ball hits the CF, and ignores 3rd base coach telling him to come back as he crosses home plate. Defense throws ball into 3rd. R3 safe at home or out on appeal?

Runner is safe. Can you imagine how exploitable this rule would be otherwise? Giggity.

2) R2/3, 2 outs. Groundball to SS, who boots it around infield. R3 scores, R2 stays at bag. SS decides to try to be a hero and fires it to first even though batter has already crossed bag. Logically, throw goes about 20 feet over 1B's head and out of play. Place the runners.

If I know this rule correctly, you get the bag you were "going to," plus one more bag. R3 scores, R2 advances to third base (since he wasn't advancing to third at the time of the throw), and batter-runner advances to second.

3) Batter doubles down RF line, and obviously misses first base. Pitcher takes rubber to appeal, but batter takes off from second and gets caught in rundown. After a couple of throws, batter manages to move into third safely. Pitcher takes ball back on rubber and throws to first. Safe at 3rd, safe at 2nd or out?

Hmm, this is a good one. I think a pitch has to be delivered first before you void your appeal. That will be my guess, at least.

I don't even think you have to physically appeal it. I think you can do a verbal appeal as well, but they never seem to. That might just be in softball.

4) R1, 1 out. Liner to LF who makes diving catch. R1 is already around second and just watches as defense attempts to double him off. However, LF's throw goes over 1B's head and out of play. R1, still standing at second, is awarded third. Pitcher takes the rubber and throws to 1B standing on bag. R1 safe or out?

He just has to be out. I can't imagine this being any other way.

5) R1, 2 out, bottom of 9th. Visiting team clinging to a 4-3 lead. Pitcher balks on motion to plate (which is noted by umpire), but still delivers pitch. Batter smashes ball up RCF alley. R1 decides to head for home, and is thrown out at plate. What happens?

It's like a penalty in football. If the umpire decides to keep the play alive, you as the offense can choose to accept or decline the penalty after the result of the play. In this case, they would accept the penalty, and the batter would be back in the box with a re-pitch, of sorts.

6) R2. Groundball to 2B. SS inadvertently trips R2 as he's heading for third. Ball is thrown away by 2B. R2 tries for home and is thrown out in close play. R2 safe or out?

I thought obstruction only gets you as far as the next base which you're proceeding to, but it might be completely up to the umpire in this case.

At any rate, I don't know if I can answer your exact question (because I don't know how much freedom runners are given), but let's say that runner was on second, tripped by the shortstop, and thrown out at third. The umpire then gets to decide whether or not that runner would have made it to third had the obstruction not happened. If he would have made it, the umpire would give him third base. If he would have been out, the runner gets second base back.

I'm going to say that the runner can only travel as far as the next base without liability. So going for home would put him out.

7) R1/2/3. High pop-up to pitchers mound. Umpire calls infield fly, as infield surrounds ball. SS attempts to try to be smart and let it drop, but ball bounces and takes a wicked hop away from SS, and rolls all the way into dugout located halfway up third base line. R2/3 score and R1 goes to second. Batter, upset over poor AB, went directly back to his dugout after ball was hit, and attempts to run back out and takes place at 1B. Place all the runners.

Foul ball.

[theaub]

Re: Do you know baseball rules?

I posted the answers as spoilers in my OP. That was a pretty solid job though (and I did a poor job of explaining #4 so I edited it).

For the record, I would consider #3/5 the toughest, since they are very obscure.

[Jr.]

Re: Do you know baseball rules?

I posted the answers as spoilers in my OP. That was a pretty solid job though (and I did a poor job of explaining #4 so I edited it).

For the record, I would consider #3/5 the toughest, since they are very obscure.

Those are great scenarios. I thought the balk rule was that the team hitting got to choose the best outcome. Good to know that isn't the rule considering I'm a coach, haha.

[Blzer]

Re: Do you know baseball rules?

Crap, looks like I got the loot of them wrong. I misread/miswrote some of them though, especially the balk one. I don't know why, but I somehow heard in my head that the runner was initially on third base.

Anyway, good to get things cleared up! Any of these can potentially happen in a game, and they're good to see the umpires get it right and show up the red-faced managers lol.

[jhendricks316]

Re: Do you know baseball rules?

1. I'd say so, but I don't think there's a rule for it.

2. Fair.

3. No

4. Dead. If caught, it's a strike too.

5. Yes. And, don't let the ball hit you.

6. The statement is confusing, but I guess yes.