I wanted to follow up on the Stupid Rule post with a constructive suggestion. I’ve never quite understood the need for the appeal play. If the runner broke the rule of not returning to the base before advancing on a ball caught before touching the ground, he should not be allowed to advance. The appeal play puts the onus on the defense to enforce the rule. This is strange, since there already exists a set of people on the field to enforce the rule, the umpires. With multiple runners on base, the attention of the fielders should be on positioning themselves for potential plays on those runners, not paying attention to the man on third base leaving early.
I have two suggestions on dealing with the runner breaking the rule:
- When a runner leaves a base early, the umpire raises his right arm straight up. The second the runner leaves, the umpire knows if it was early or not. If the runner sees the arm go up, he can retreat, and any runners who might be trying to gain that base can retreat also. It also signals to the defense the correct base for a throw. No ambiguity, no need for an appeal, no need for the defense to play umpire.
- Instead of signaling, the umpire lets the play proceed, same as now. However, if the runner reaches the next base or home plate, he is immediately called out by the umpire in charge of recognizing the runner left early. So fly ball to CF, runner head home, throw to second. The second the runner touches the plate he’s out because he left early.
The current policy allows a broken rule to result in a run. That’s wrong and it should be corrected.
Option #2 (the preferable one, I think) is almost perfectly analogous to automatic icing in hockey. Enacting the rule in both sports would lessen unnecessary expenditure of energy and eliminate frustration from delay for the fan. However, it would eliminate the drama of on-field arguments and puck chasing that some people like.
Option #1 The defense does not have to play umpire, they are just required to have situational awareness and a high baseball IQ and watch the base-runners.
Option #2 This would get rid of the excitement of recording triple plays like the one from the 4/12/2009 Pittsburgh vs. Cincinnati game. By this rule all the SS would have to do is catch the ball because a hit and run was called with men on first and second and both base-runners advanced to the next base by the time the SS caught the flare to shallow left field.
Not sure how #1 would work if bases were loaded and a fly ball hit to CF and one of the umpires had to go out to determine if the catch was made. In this case a different umpire than the 2nd base umpire would be the one making the call if the runner on 2B left too early. Once you have umpires raising their hands for a runner leaving early on a different base then I think you have much more confusion than you did before. Maybe they could throw different color flags on the field. A green one if the runner on first left early, a pink on if the runner on second left early and a cyan one if the runner on third left early. In other words, I don’t think #1 will make much of an improvement.
#2 This option I feel is really bad, or perhaps needs to be rewritten. Case in point. A runner on first base and the batter hits a deep fly ball to the gap. The runner thinks the ball will drop so he takes off for second and rounds the base. The outfielder then makes a diving catch. According to your ruling, the umpire would then need to immediately call the runner out, even if he could easily retag 2nd base on the way back to first.
I think the rule is ok as is. Like someone else mentioned, a little defensive awareness goes a long ways. It’s something I learned to do in Little League. Always watch to see if a runner left a base early, or didn’t step on a base. On top of that you have coaches and bench players to help you out.
vr, Xeifrank
XeiFrank,
Yes, you are correct there. However, if they’re that far off first, they’re probably out anyway.
David, not true. I’ve seen runners get safely back to first base on a fly ball after rounding second many times.
Why not just say the run doesn’t count unless they’ve tagged up?
You have the same issue with batting out of order, the onus is on the defense not the umpire. Do you want to change that rule as well?
Bruin,
I wouldn’t mind seeing the umpire say, “Son, you’re batting out of order. Go back and send up the correct hitter.”
However, the batting out of order situation is almost always a mistake, as opposed to intentionally trying to break the rule. It’s perfectly possible that the ump misses it as well. Since batting out of order almost always results in a bad outcome for the offensive team, I’m okay with that. It still seems silly, however, that umpire ignores breaking of the rules.
All they had to do was step on third, like any other appeal. They failed to do it. The Dodgers didn’t benefit from cheating, they benefited from Arizona not appealing, like defenses have been doing for 150-plus years.
Let’s keep it simple. Violation of a rule no pitch offending baserunner is out. THe violation occured before a hit could have been made. THe batter can not hit the ball before it gets to him. THe base runner violation is an out. then no pitch on the pitcher and batter.