Last weekend I saw something strange. Runner on 1st, batter hits hard line drive to RC. As runner is rounding 3B to go home, coach tells her to stop. As she puts the breaks on, she loses her balance and almost runs over the coach, who grabs her to keep her from falling (she literally ran into him and he instinctively grabbed onto her arms to keep them both from falling). She returns to 3B. Field umpire smiles, says nothing, and carries on like nothing happened. As soon as ball was dead, the plate ump called time and ruled the runner out. She said the coach stopped her from advancing.
My question is: whose call is this? It was obvious that the coach wasn't trying to keep the runner from advancing. He was trying to keep himself and his runner from falling down. It was a spontaneous reaction from her running into him. The field ump seemed to recognize this and let it go, but the plate ump did not see it that way. Also, the coach was in the box when the runner ran into him.
My question is: whose call is this? It was obvious that the coach wasn't trying to keep the runner from advancing. He was trying to keep himself and his runner from falling down. It was a spontaneous reaction from her running into him. The field ump seemed to recognize this and let it go, but the plate ump did not see it that way. Also, the coach was in the box when the runner ran into him.