odd turn of events....

[Stan W.]

Last night (Colt level) I am BU..

Home team catcher drives a ball for a single..... I move to "B"... first pitch he is off to second on a steal attempt....this kid has wheels and gets up quite a head of steam....great jump, text book slide, but the field is hard and dusty....clear he is going to overslide the base...throw is late and a more than a bit offline....

Now here comes the part I want opinions on.....

The bases are those soft rubber ones that fit into a square box built into the ground...they come out fairly easy.....and often...

Runner sees he is going to overslide and reaches behind him to grab base and pulls the base out of the mooring......he says his hand got stuck under it and it came out accidentaly, but one could also say it looked like he pulled it out on purpose to keep from getting tagged out on the overslide......had the base not slowed him down he would have ended up 3-4 feet past the base...

Now, the SS who caught the ball never made any tag attempt or anything but throw the ball back to the pitcher..... Runner replaces bag into mooring and stands on top of it.....

does anyone have anything but safe?.......any warning?.........anything other than dont do that?.........with the absence of any type of reasonable play on the runner I had nothing but safe...

thoughts?

[Ump Rube]

I believe the technical term (or maybe non-technical term) is Hollywood Bases.

Anywho... In my experience the bases do not come out that often, and when they do it takes a hell of a yank. So with that in mind.

1. No tag, no play, no out.
   
2. No warning needed.
   
3. Maybe, a hey let's try to keep the bases in the field ok? OR I think you need to rethink the meaning of stealing.
   
4. Check with the field's managers (City, League, School, sometimes a travel team "adopts" a field) and have them check to make sure the posts are at the right height to the dirt level, and have them correct if possible,
   

[treedog24]

Since F6 didn't even make a play why worry, put base back where it belongs and get on with the game. Of course you could of been me last night spending 5 minutes trying to find the female plug in the ground at second base.

[Ump Rube]

Since F6 didn't even make a play why worry, put base back where it belongs and get on with the game. Of course you could of been me last night spending 5 minutes trying to find the female plug in the ground at second base.

Could be just us odd MN folk, but we have female stems on the bases and the male posts in the ground. That way the dirt doesn't get in the hole for the base. Downside, you have to dig out around the post a bit so the base can go down.

[treedog24]

Could be just us odd MN folk, but we have female stems on the bases and the male posts in the ground. That way the dirt doesn't get in the hole for the base. Downside, you have to dig out around the post a bit so the base can go down.

I wish that they would get those Hollywood bases with the magnets. This field just received money from Tigers Foundation to fix up the fields and someone told me they spend 10K on the mound and home. Still looks like crap and the base are the same color as the ground makes calling banger into second and third almost impossible. I wish they would of spent some money on some white spray paint.

[mstaylor]

What Stan is talking about are not Hollywood bases. They have a 1 1/2 to 2 in post and are hard to get up. I think what he is talking is the breakaways that the base is only about 2 in smaller than the base itsself and pops out if you look at it wrong. If I am correct then definitely nothing. Even they tried to tag him I would have nothing.

[catoblue]

I miss the good old canvas bags with the stakes in the ground.

As to the OP: Safe and nothing else.

[willv28]

Yeah, I would have nothing too. You can't say he wasn't just trying to maintain contact. It's just something you have to deal with when it's that kind of base. We have the same kind.

[BrianC14]

Safe. No question about it. (Take the alternative - you call 'Out' - and how do you justify calling that?)

As for the base coming loose - I think that would be quite a trick - a runner sliding past the base still has the ability to pull up on the bag (leverage, any one?) as he's going, as you say, maybe 3 or 4 feet beyond?

[daled]

We have these bases at several of the fields I work and they are always coming out of the ground on "normal" slides. I would have a safe call and no other dialog with the runner.