Dropped third

To add to this ruling a little bit, another weird play happened last night. It was a dropped third situation with a runner on first and less than two outs. Drop third occurs, the batter starts running to 1st. When the runner on first saw batter/runner coming she ran for second arriving safely. The catcher throws to first to get an out that has already been recorded since it was a "dropped third-base occupied" situation. Everyone starts yelling at the girl on second base to go back to first, our team, their team, fans, our Coach says he heard the field umpire tell her to go back, which she denied at the conference afterwards. When the runner started back to first, the other Coach then instructed the pitcher to throw to first to the first baseman and apply a tag out on the runner as she arrives. It was CRAZY! The game stopped for a few minutes as we sorted the paly out. The call was, out on the dropped third and out on the tag out at first. 10-U DRIVES ME CRAZY!

A group of humans is always dumber then a single human. In this case, the group proved this. Kid stole second, perfectly legal, no problem. Kid stepped off second and wandered around the field in the general direction of first and was tagged out. No problem, perfectly legal out.

Sounds like the only crazy thing that happened was the words coming out of peoples mouths, and there really aren't any rules about that so long as they're not derogatory.

-W

starsnuffer said:

A group of humans is always dumber then a single human. In this case, the group proved this. Kid stole second, perfectly legal, no problem. Kid stepped off second and wandered around the field in the general direction of first and was tagged out. No problem, perfectly legal out.

Sounds like the only crazy thing that happened was the words coming out of peoples mouths, and there really aren't any rules about that so long as they're not derogatory.

-W

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EXACTLY! This is a lesson learned that hopefully most parties involved will understand better next time.

My DD is on a 14U team that doesn't get the dropped 3rd strike rule at all. They are making progress though!! But it does make you go mental in the process.

IT inning, 2 outs runners on 1st and 2nd. Catcher drops third strike, attempts a throw to first overthrowing. 1 Run scores. Plate umpire conferences with field ump and play stands. Plate umpire says he called the batter out but didn't see dropped third (in the dirt not a clean drop). Field umpire had clear view of play. Tournament director (outside the fence) calls the plate ump over and tells him if he called the out then she was out -director confirms that he saw the dropped third as well. Play reversed inning ended no run scored.

1st was occupied so the batter is out.

T Red said:

1st was occupied so the batter is out.

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2 outs - Not automatic out

The very first post explains the rule very well. 0 -1 out if first is occupied would be an out.

Sorry I shouldn't have skimmed over your post.

So your issue is with the overturned play? Not the DTS.

Accidentally calling a player out is not a bell that cannot be unrung unlike calling a ball foul. From the description of the play it doesnt even sound as if anyone heard the umpire call her out. The batter ran and the catcher threw the ball into right field. Rule 10

12ucarolinas said:

Tournament director (outside the fence) calls the plate ump over and tells him . . .

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The only thing he's telling me is goodbye, because I'm never working again for any TD that does this.

obbay said:

I recently had an ump tell me that if a third strike hits the ground before it gets to the catcher, it is played as a dropped 3rd strike. I didn't get it then and with the historical explanation, it still doesn't make sense.

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The umpire is correct. This is actually call the "3rd Strike Rule", not the "Dropped 3rd Strike Rule". Many times, umpires will refer to it as the Uncaught 3rd Strike Rule.

It is real simple. If the ball must go directly from the pitcher's hand to the catcher's glove/hand and be caught for the 3rd strike in flight to cause the batter to be ruled out.