- Jul 5, 2016
- 659
- 63
It is a good point to acknowledge that there are times the umpire has to determine where Runners should end up.
How would that work when a hit is prematurely ruled a home run? The umpire looks at the base runner and says - you look like a gazelle, I'll give you 3rd base or you look like a slowpoke - I'll give you 2nd.
Once the umpire declared it was a home run, that decision couldn't be undone and alternative scenarios couldn't very well be reconstructed.
I suppose they could have called it a ground rule double, but even that wouldn't have been quite right.