Rare 4th out rule in MLB

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Feb 13, 2021
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MI
Except you SHOULD have to show you are intending to appeal an out, just having possession of the ball and happen to step on a base that was left early or was missed should NOT result in an out. Otherwise, umpires could just call the runner out without an appeal, which is NOT the way it does or should work.
 
Aug 12, 2014
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Except you SHOULD have to show you are intending to appeal an out, just having possession of the ball and happen to step on a base that was left early or was missed should NOT result in an out. Otherwise, umpires could just call the runner out without an appeal, which is NOT the way it does or should work.

Why? I'm genuinely curious about the reasoning. Why should it be different if you are touching a base a runner left early than if you are touching a base for a force out? I'm talking about a live ball situation, not a dead ball appeal.
 
Feb 13, 2021
880
93
MI
The answer is not simple, as the reasoning is not spelled out concretely in any of the 'official' sources for MLB (The OBR, casebook, umpire manuals).

However, as I have come to understand it is that in an appeal, the defense is asserting that the offense failed to to something it was required to do (stay on a base until a fly ball is touched or touch a base while going beyond said base). After thinking about a suitable analogy, I have come up with the following, hopefully it makes sense and is on point:

If, during a trial, one of the attorneys does or says something they are not allowed to do, the opposing attorney objects (appeals to the judge for a decision), the judge then either sustains the appeal (calls an out) or overrules the objection (signals safe, or no violation of the rules). The judge does NOT intervene without the positive action of the aggrieved attorney, even if the attorney chokes and sputters and turns red; without the objection, the judge DOESN'T SAY A THING. Same thing in baseball, without the positive, concrete action of making an appeal, the umpire says or does nothing.

EDIT: P.S. In MLB there is no dead ball appeal, an appeal is ALWAYS made during a live ball.
 
Last edited:
May 29, 2015
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This is also a throwback to the VERY early days of baseball. Umpires were not called umpires originally, but rather arbiters. We did not make calls at all. Instead we only ruled on appeals. So, an easy ground out at first was just accepted because everybody knew it. A closer play where the players did not agree would go to the arbiter.

As time changed and the game evolved, umpires began to call every play. For some odd reason, the plays labeled as appeal plays remained under that old status quo. It really is a throwback to when it was a gentleman's game.
 

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