Jimurray

Only a pro scorekeeper cares if a caught ball is foul or fair. Or does gamechanger chart that also.

It should be moot and I'm not going to spend any brain cells concocting a non moot sit although the reason I posted was a memory of some OP quite awhile ago that might have needed a ruling that the catch was not the first play.

I think the OP is asking if the first play is the line drive out, which it isn’t for throws going out of play.

Yet we allow a lift of the pivot foot to position fully parallel to the rubber in the windup for the many pitchers who start square or angular. Does that matter to Kelsey Grammer.

I was taught to use the slot arm to point.

Have you not understood the nuance of the OP? What position or defensive position did he return to?

Correction, the original interp was by FED on Arbiter in 2015. I believe we all have ignored it, pun intended. Texas reiterated it this year. We will see how it's called in the post season. As we know, most every runner runs out of the lane as the shortest distance to 1B and most are put out anyway. RLI called when BR is thrown out? - High School - Umpire-Empire

No, as in NCAA, you can judge the RLI affecting the throw.

I think the original arbiter interp was national. The NSFH arbiter site.

You need a throw in FED. What we didn't realize is that you don't wait to see if the violation should be ignored because the throw retired the runner. A 2012 FED Arbiter interp and a current Texas interp have you call the RLI as soon as there is a throw and a runner out of the lane at or past 45'

FED differs and requires no appeal. Runner is called out immediately.

@noumpere probably has referenced this as far back as 2012 and we would welcome his insight. But his references would just be who said what as there are no official interps. The semantics seem to say through or by applies when closely by or through. When not that and a batted ball passes the 2 fielders, assuming a normal infield config, a string drawn between them to determine the passing, a runner is not out in FED if that ball hits him.

The baseline means nothing. There are two rules at play. One is whether he could be called out for abandonment: ": Any runner after reaching first base who leaves the base path heading for his dugout or his position believing that there is no further play, may be declared out if the umpire judges the act of the runner to be considered abandoning his efforts to run the bases." He did believe there was no further play but did not head for his dugout or position (or is his position in the batter's box?) and in your OP was not called out for abandonment. The other rule requires an immediate return after overrunning which he did not do and was subject to being tagged for an out: "(4)  He is tagged, when the ball is alive, while off his base. EXCEPTION: A batter-runner cannot be tagged out after overrunning or oversliding first base if he returns immediately to the base;" While the baseline means nothing the trajectory of the runner in regard to the baseline or 2B might make us judge that the runner did not immedately return anf if there was a tag off the base we would call him out.

You have to specify a play by an infielder in FED and any fielder in OBR/NCAA. I think FED rules as those codes rule with a through or by batted ball. FED doesn't rule as OBR/NCAA with a batted ball that passes not near infielders. OBR/NCAA have a runner hit by a batted ball always out unless the ball went through or by an infielder and no other fielder had a play. In FED with fielders playing in a runner hit by a batted ball behind drawn in infielders, neither of whom had a play, the runner is not called for INT. Thus, I think the string?

By means passed closely near and playable by the infielder.