Play at the plate

[Guest Shelby]

If a runner misses the plate and no tag is made, is the umpire supposed to make any initial call?

[scrounge]

Not in baseball. As I understand it (which is very little), the mechanic in certain levels of softball is indeed to call safe.

[maven]

Some baseball umpires apply the 1B mechanic to HP, but only on a force play. If R3 beats the throw but misses the plate, they'll signal safe to show that, pending appeal by the defense. The rationale for applying the same mechanic as at 1B is that at these 2 bases a runner can legally overrun the base (though for different reasons).

For tag plays (in baseball), no touch + no tag = no signal. Other umpires use this mechanic for all plays at HP.

[taa71458]

On 7/12/2016 at 0:43 PM, maven said:

Some baseball umpires apply the 1B mechanic to HP, but only on a force play. If R3 beats the throw but misses the plate, they'll signal safe to show that, pending appeal by the defense. The rationale for applying the same mechanic as at 1B is that at these 2 bases a runner can legally overrun the base (though for different reasons).

For tag plays (in baseball), no touch + no tag = no signal. Other umpires use this mechanic for all plays at HP.

Bringing up a week old thread but am curious. On a force play how can a runner beat the throw but miss the plate? When I say beat the throw I mean the ball arrived, fielder has possession and makes contact with bag with ball in glove, but runner "beats it", running through the base (or HP), but not touching. Would you call him out immediately because he never touched the base, thus is out on the force, or once he runs passed the base it has to be appealed?

[Stk004]

5 minutes ago, taa71458 said:

Bringing up a week old thread but am curious. On a force play how can a runner beat the throw but miss the plate? When I say beat the throw I mean the ball arrived, fielder has possession and makes contact with bag with ball in glove, but runner "beats it", running through the base (or HP), but not touching. Would you call him out immediately because he never touched the base, thus is out on the force, or once he runs passed the base it has to be appealed?

My take on it is if the runner simply clears the base in stride (steps right over it) and makes contact with the ground past the base then he "beat the throw." Now it's up to the defense to appeal that the runner missed the base. 

[JSam21]

10 minutes ago, taa71458 said:

Bringing up a week old thread but am curious. On a force play how can a runner beat the throw but miss the plate? When I say beat the throw I mean the ball arrived, fielder has possession and makes contact with bag with ball in glove, but runner "beats it", running through the base (or HP), but not touching. Would you call him out immediately because he never touched the base, thus is out on the force, or once he runs passed the base it has to be appealed?

When ever a runner passes any base, they are assumed to have touched the base until properly appealed by the defense.

[maven]

1 hour ago, taa71458 said:

Would you call him out immediately because he never touched the base, thus is out on the force, or once he runs passed the base it has to be appealed?

As others have said, a runner who passes a base without touching has acquired it, pending a proper appeal. So, no, we can't call him out on the force, because he's not out yet.

That's why (for the umpires who use the mechanic) we have to signal, even though the runner missed the base (1B or HP, where the runner may overrun): we have to signal whether runner beat ball.

Of course, if the ball beat the runner, then the missed base is moot.

[taa71458]

Thanks for the info guys, we officiate a weird sport.