Jay R.

Agree, @Velho. Having worked in both LL and PONY jurisdictions, in my experience local LL leagues adhere much more closely to the rulebook, which means that it's actually been thought through rather than jotted down by a random (well-meaning) board member. I de facto call collisions in youth games in line with the LL rulebook in mind.

You can appeal for a "fourth out." From MLB's Official Baseball Rules 5.09(c)(4): "Appeal plays may require an umpire to recognize an apparent 'fourth out. If the third out is made during a play in which an appeal play is sustained on another runner, the appeal play decision takes precedence in determining the out. If there is more than one appeal during a play that ends a half-inning, the defense may elect to take the out that gives it the advantage. For the purpose of this rule, the defensive team has 'left the field' when the pitcher and all infielders have left fair territory on their way to the bench or Clubhouse." Same ruling all codes, except that there may be variations on when the defense is considered to have left the field. CloseCallSports had a great article and video on this.

FWIW, I don't believe your rule cited as "both players must avoid collision" is an official PONY rule; I just did a ctrl-F through the PONY rulebook for "collision" and saw nothing; "contact" did not return anything related to contact between runner and fielder. In my experience in a PONY-heavy area most local leagues have a vaguely worded local rule about avoiding contact or collisions that gives broad leeway to the umpire. Even at that the penalty tends to be an out if the offender is the runner or obstruction if it's the fielder. Umpires might call malicious contact or unsportsmanlike conduct and eject the offender if it's particularly egregious but it doesn't sound like your play was that.

PONY Bronco (12U), so modified OBR R2 is advancing on a low ball; F2 blocks it cleanly and is on his feet quickly. After the swing, the batter steps toward third base (but still in the box). F2 barehands the ball and pumps at third, realizes he's gonna drill the batter, and shuffles left. Batter has no idea what's going on and steps out of the box, right into F2's path and F2 lowers his arm. I called interference and (incorrectly) called the runner out and resume the at-bat. Aside from the fact that I penalized the runner, I am hearing from a couple people (including my assignor) that a) I shouldn't have called the interference because the batter was in the box on the initial attempt. b) I shouldn't have called the interference because the catcher never made an actual throw. I don't believe that to be the case and can find some blogs that support that but am having trouble finding rule or formal interpretation guidance. Anyone? Given the age level also curious about NFHS and LL if anyone wants to chime in.

As described, this is not a force play. If the batter-runner legally touched first and is deemed to have made a move toward second, it's no different then if he had rounded the base and been tagged between first and second. Since it's not a force, the run should count, assuming that the umpire agrees that the runner crossed home before the tag occurred. If he had missed first base as he ran by, he is subject to being out on appeal for missing the base. You could appeal this even after the tag and, if sustained, the run would not count because the batter-runner would have been out before legally acquiring first base. (This is not technically a force play, fwiw; you can peruse the archives for past discussions on that point.) Your rule citation is for a runner who retreats across bases, not simply retreating toward their legally acquired base. For example: A runner on first runs on the pitch, a fly ball is hit, and the runner rounds second before realizing he will likely need to tag up. If he runs in reverse order past second base toward first, and then the ball drops, the force play at second is still on even though the runner has touched second on the play.

This. As a coach of (admittedly low-level) youth teams in several sports, I mostly want to know whether the officials are paying enough attention to make a call. I can understand not verbalizing things that are nothing, especially at lower age levels, but signaling seems to be a no-brainer for the benefit of coaches and spectators.

Lock this thread already. Use chicken wire if you have to.

Thanks @Jimurray That rule is what I had in mind---the youth pitchers yesterday were not going directly from stretch to set "without interruption". So by interpretation this a balk at MLB (and MiLB I presume) but not at youth levels?

PONY Bronco (U12), so modified OBR Been a while since I umpired games with balks---formerly did LL through Seniors, but haven't done that since 2019. Have done closed-bases baseball and softball since then. In a game that I was umpiring last night, pitchers from both teams routinely toed the rubber and stretched, then started to come set and, without actually coming set, threw to a base, feinted toward second, or stepped off. Is this allowed? No one from either bench reacted at any point, but I thought a pitcher had to either step off or throw from the stretch (before starting to come set), or come all the way set and then throw. Thanks in advance.

Little League would not be a violation if the runner is running directly toward second base at time of throw.

I'm not familiar with Babe Ruth or Cal Ripken, but my kids' league at 8U (coach-pitch) had a rule that outfielders were not allowed to make plays in the infield. Your exact scenario could not have happened in my kids' league, because they were not allowed to run on overthrows from the infield. (If the ball was hit past the dirt, the batter and any runners could run until the ball was controlled in the infield by an infielder. If the ball was hit within the infield, they could only advance one base, regardless of overthrows in any direction.) The rules did not specify a penalty for outfielders making a play in the infield, and we did not use umpires except for one umpire for the championship game at the year-end tournament, but in practice it was treated as Type 1/A obstruction. The most common scenario was, with a force play at second, the center fielder would take a sharply hit ball and run it to second. Time, the runner is safe, all runners can advance one base from where they started (assuming they were running or forced). So if your league has a local rule, I'm inclined to agree with the incoherent coach---but also, if I'm umpiring that game and they don't give me the written local rules ahead of time, I'm letting the play stand and not relying on a coach's interpretation of them.

I'm guessing that the OP doesn't (or at least didn't immediately) get the difference between protest and arguing.

Chiming in on the side conversation about whether to work a game if it's not official. I don't think it's black and white. The league my kids are involved in is laid back and less structured. Being somewhat rural it's not uncommon for games to start with fewer than the required number, and it's understood that it's all developmental anyway. I've umpired games there with as few as six on one side (usually the other team supplies a couple outfielders) and even 8-on-7 isn't uncommon. On the other hand I umpired in a competitive Little League chapter with a tight schedule on Saturdays and strict rules about what was and wasn't a game. If a team got to fewer than 8 players, the game was over. If I had a good relationship with the coach and time allowed, I might call a couple scrimmage innings. But I also had no trouble saying I was leaving when adults started wanting to play with or against their kids---at that point they can call their own game and the likelihood of injury and thus lawsuits went up. Ymmv.

Thanks for the answers. To be clear, were I behind the plate, I almost certainly would have just called it a ball, and (given the setting) reminded the catcher to let it come to him. And yeah, the 3-0 count renders it moot. I guess the crux of my question is whether CI requires a swing (obviously the most common) or a squeeze play/steal of home, or if jumping around near the zone can be enough to get a call. I wanted to tell my partner to make him swing (as @maven suggests), but I had @Toggy's same thoughts that to do so might be begging for an injury, given the age and lack of experience. Does a rulebook or interpretation support my partner's instinct for CI?

Weird play in U10 Fall Ball. I was on the bases supervising an 11-year-old calling balls and strikes. Rule set is a weird local set; let's use OBR for purposes of the question. With a 3-0 count and no one on base, the next pitch was high and outside, but not dramatically so. The catcher popped up and caught it; if I had to guess, he probably caught it somewhere between the back of the plate and the back of the batter's box. I saw the batter start to swing but pull back. My partner made no call initially (it's his first season), then when coaches asked what the call was, he motioned me in and said, "The catcher got in the way." We discussed it and ruled it ball four, with a note to the defensive coach about the catcher's positioning (which he agreed with). Can you get CI on this play, as described? Obviously contact between the batter and catcher gets an interference call, but OBR seems to be vague about what constitutes it otherwise. Any guidance for this, in OBR or any other ruleset.

I don't think LL would have you call this out based on Rules Instruction Manual (unless they've changed interps; this edition is a few years old). From 7.08(a)(3), the slide rule: Fielder in the OP is not waiting to make a tag, so I don't think it's relevant at all. 7.09(e)'s interference notes, while most explicitly considering a double play at second, also indicates that a runner continuing to advance after being forced is not likely committing interference:

MLB Rule 6.01(g) (other codes have the same basic ruling) Interference With Squeeze Play or Steal of Home If, with a runner on third base and trying to score by means of a squeeze play or a steal, the catcher or any other fielder steps on, or in front of home base without possession of the ball, or touches the batter or his bat, the pitcher shall be charged with a balk, the batter shall be awarded first base on the interference and the ball is dead.

As noted, it's not unique to 2014---just the year that I got emailed to me. I haven't worked LL since 2019 (coaching my kids, and occasionally umpiring softball and my kids' league, which is not LL). I didn't assume much had changed in their interps until @Senor Azulgot me on their recent reinterpretation of train wreck at 1B recently by quoting a newer edition. So I figured I'd be precise.

From the LL Rules Instruction Manual, 2014 Edition: Text: "If there is not a good reason for "Time" to be called, umpires should not call "Time," especially if the request is made by the defense in an effort to stop runners from advancing."

Relevant: https://uni-watch.com/2023/05/29/minor-leaguer-goes-topless-to-prove-he-was-hit-by-pitch/ "Gastonia infielder Jack Reinheimer was hit by a pitch but the umps apparently thought it might have hit his bat. So Reinheimer removed his jersey and undershirt to show his bruised flesh. That was enough to satisfy the ump, so Reinheimer — still topless — then trotted down to first base, where he began putting his base layer and jersey back on."

Had an only-in-youth-baseball one last week as I managed last week. It's a U10 local rule set; the commish has declined to clarify whether it's a mod of OBR, NFHS, NCAA, LL, PONY Mustang, or something else. It rarely matters, but might here. My son's team was on defense, with the bases loaded and one out. Ball is crushed into the gap with a deep fence; all runners score easily, Batter-Runner misses third but touches the plate. As the ball comes in to the catcher, my coaches yell that he missed third, so I tell the catcher to throw to third. Batter-runner dashes from the edge of in play back toward third, without coming anywhere near home plate; my catcher throws to the third baseman touching the bag as I tell the umpire that we're appealing the batter-runner missing third, and the runner slides in after. The teenagers (plate and base) look at each other and look back at me without making a call. Of course it's not worth arguing about, so I said that if they didn't have him missing third they should give the kid the run, and that's what happened. But I'm curious: 1) If the runner returns to retouch third in that situation, should he remain on third even if the umpires have him legally touching third and scoring previously? (Do codes differ on this?) 2) If the answer to (1) is yes, I assume that I can appeal him missing home on the run back to third on the last-time-by approach? 3) Anything else to consider that I'm missing?

I assumed this, after umpiring LL games for seven seasons. Alas, coaching my 10-year-old's team this year, I've appealed three times on missed bases, to no avail. I've had the umpire look sort of blankly at me twice, and one ruled safe.

Foul Only the position of the ball when it's first touched matters when it's in front of the base. If every part of the ball is entirely outside the foul line, it's foul.

Is this a change? When I worked LL (2013 through 2019), there was language in 7.13 about the umpire determining the value of a hit. Runners only totally disappeared if the batted ball stayed in the infield. Given the OP's description of the play as a "clean single" I would assume that, were all runners safe, the run would score.

Presumably this has to do with some sort of time limit---perhaps they're past a no-new-inning point but before an "end the game" time. I've umpired youth games with such a system (eg, no new inning after two hours, and games end at the 2:30 mark) in which the score would revert back to the score at the last completed inning if the outcome changed in the last inning and the home team didn't get a chance to bat. As @Jimurray said, you might get a consensus for a team to stop batting if the game was out of hand and it was a very low-level game. But that would have to be arranged and agreed to by both coaches. If it's competitive enough that they're concerned about managing the clock in extra innings, you should talk to the league administration/umpire-in-chief/assignor about how they want you to manage this situation. In the league where I worked (a competitive Little League chapter): -- If they're refusing to bat or literally pulling people off the field, that would be a forfeit. -- Penalize overt stalling tactics with balls or strikes as appropriate. After multiple offenses in the last inning, warn that they're approaching forfeit territory, and get ready to call it. (I only ever got as far calling one ball or strike in the last inning.) -- Assuming that pitchers were pitching (legally, not quick pitching), we should not be too concerned with the outcome (pitchers intentionally walking batters on four pitches, or batters intentionally striking out). -- There are ways to guarantee that you get out (swinging at every pitch, and walking to the dugout if the catcher drops the ball). -- We were not to allow anything that we deemed dangerous or obviously unsporting. (Another thread in this forum asked about a runner bunting and running after and grabbing the ball for an interference call. That, to me, would probably cross the line, given the likelihood of a collision.) To go back to your original question, no, no major code of baseball allows the offense to formally end its inning early. (Other bat-and-ball games, notably cricket, do have such a provision.)