What's the ruling?

Welcome to Discuss Fastpitch

Your FREE Account is waiting to the Best Softball Community on the Web.

Oct 3, 2011
3,478
113
Right Here For Now
@inumpire and @YOCOACH — you guys are talking about two different scenarios. YOCOACH is following the original scenario (game ball in the gap in the outfield, foreign ball on the infield) while inumpire has a new situation (game ball coming in for a play, foreign ball in the area of the play).

YOCOACH, you are being generous if you are happy with just second base! :)

To inumpire’s situation though ... you have the game ball coming in on a play and the foreign ball rolling into the infield ... you are saying you are killing it. And then ... what? What are you awarding? Odds are your award is either robbing the runner of a base or the defense of an out when neither is at fault.

I understand if there is a player safety issue/concern ... but player confusion isn‘t our problem.

Exactly my point posting in reference to the OP. That said, if the play were to be killed for whatever reason (even though within the rule set it shouldn't have been) with my BR already rounded and heading towards 2nd, I'd be really upset if they tried to return her to first. There's been more than a few times I've had to explain the rules to an umpire. Entirely in a nice way (as I've learned it never helps to be upset and take it out on the ump like an a$$)and usually to no effect. However, when the game was over, many of them came up to me after the game and said, 'Yeah, I blew that call.' It mostly happened after they discussed the rules with the other umps or UIC.

Heck, one of the reasons I know them so well is reading the discussions amongst you guys on here:)
 
Aug 1, 2019
195
43
South Carolina
Almost all rule sets have a catch-all rule that allows the plate umpires to make a call that is not covered by the rules in the book. For NFHS, that's rule 10-2-3g. In USA Softball, it is in Rule 10, Section 1, Powers and Duties. In USSSA, it's under Rule 14, Section 12-M. In WBSC, it's in rule 3-6-1. And in NCAA play, it's in rule 15.2.

This is a perfect example of one of those situations. The rules don't cover what to do when an extra ball appears on the field because it's something that should never really happen in the course of a game. So when it does, it's up to the umpires to watch what happens, and make a ruling based upon any play that was affected. If nobody reacted to the extra ball, there's no reason to make a ruling.

It always bugs me when one of my partners automatically kills play immediately when they see a ball come from another field or the bullpen. If it's way out in the outfield somewhere while the batter hit a ground ball to the shortstop, why stop the game? Let it play out, for crying out loud; if someone does get confused by that ball, then we use the catch-all rule to deal with it.
 
Feb 12, 2014
648
43
A couple of years ago, the Reds were playing the Indians at Progressive Field. Indians player hits a ball in the rightfield corner. As the outfielder reaches the ball and throws it in, a Reds reliever in the right field bullpen uncorks the mother of all wild pitches that actually cleared the bullpen wall and made it out onto the field. The timing was unreal and the angle was almost exactly the same. The Indians player on 1B at the time of the hit saw the errant ball was going to miss the cutoff man (while the cutoff man was taking the actual throw from the RF). Player rounds 3B thinking that he can make it home before realizing the cutoff man has a ball, too. He is thrown out trying to get back to 3B. Umpires let the play stand. No stoppage of the game at all.

Obviously, MLB rules differ greatly from the various softball sanctions, but I wanted to throw this gem into the conversation.

Here's the link for the YouTube video:
 
Aug 1, 2019
195
43
South Carolina
Just a wild @$$ guess, but I'm thinking perhaps the umpires felt that the Indians third base coach should have seen what was going on, and should have directed the runner to stay on the bag. He had everything in front of him, and should have noticed that the game ball was thrown to second base. And since the defense wasn't affected by the extra ball, then the ball really had no bearing on the play. Yeah, the runner was fooled, but he has a base coach out there who gets paid to let him know what's going on.
 
May 29, 2015
3,731
113
Or it just could be there is no rule that would allow the umpires to change this ... beyond the “all other situations” ... ;)

Although, since the extra ball came from the defense, I might be more inclined to exercise that clause and not let them benefit.

I thought there was a NFHS Baseball case play on a dugout player rolling a ball into the field, but I can’t find it.
 

Forum statistics

Threads
42,830
Messages
679,481
Members
21,445
Latest member
Bmac81802
Top