Thursday, May 26, 2011

Rules Question

This happened to me about 9 years ago and it came up in a discussion the other day. Let's see if you know the answer.

Runner on first. Runner steals on the pitch, the catcher goes to throw him on and hit's the plate umpire on the backswing of his throw which causes him the throw the ball into center field. The runner ends up on third. What's the call?

2 comments:

  1. play stands. the umpire is considered a part of the field.

    ReplyDelete
  2. In most circumstances, the umpire is considered part of the playing field. For example, I watched a game a few years ago where the field umpire was cutting across the infield and a throw coming to home form the outfield hit him. No call. In that case, your right. But in this situation, the umpire is not considered part of the playing field. Let’s look at the rule book.

    5.09 The ball becomes dead and runners advance one base, or return to their bases,
    without liability to be put out, when—
    (b) The plate umpire interferes with the catcher’s throw attempting to prevent a stolen
    base or retire a runner on a pick-off play; runners may not advance.

    In this situation, the runner has to go back to first.

    It’s also important to remember that there at times when the field umpire can get hit by a batted ball and he isn’t considered part of the playing field.

    5.09 The ball becomes dead and runners advance one base, or return to their bases,
    without liability to be put out, when—
    (f) A fair ball touches a runner or an umpire on fair territory before it touches an
    infielder including the pitcher, or touches an umpire before it has passed an infielder
    other than the pitcher; runners advance, if forced.

    In this situation, if you have runners one 1st and 3rd and the batter hits a ground ball towards the shortstop but it hits the field umpire. The runner from first goes to second, the batter is awarded first and the runner on third…stays at third.

    ReplyDelete