Crazy FED play

[wingman3110]

Question regarding this crazy bunt coverage I witnessed the other day in a varsity high school game.

 

Batter is bunting, defensive team has 2B charge all the way in from his position towards home plate (why? who knows). This 2B is coming hard, by the time the pitch is arriving to the batter he is about 10 ft from home plate.

 

This goes on for about 3 or 4 consecutive pitches, because batter was unsuccessful with bunt or a bad pitch was thrown. No the real kicker is, the defensive team/dugout yells "DOWN" if they see the batter pull back and attempt to swing, which did happen. The 2B, when he hears "DOWN" does a full out regular feet first slide, sliding towards home plate. 

 

Luckily, for the 2B sake, the batter was never able to connect on his slash attempt.

 

Is this legal? A safety concern at least? Interference? I don't know. Just something I have never seen before and thought was very odd and unsafe.

 

What say you?

[Thunderheads]

obviously no one one base?

 

where does he wind up when he slides?

 

Very strange

[wingman3110]

Runner on first, if that matters. Slide takes him even closer to the plate. Roughly 6-8 feet away

[Thunderheads]

Runner on first, if that matters. Slide takes him even closer to the plate. Roughly 6-8 feet away

I'm trying to get as much info as I can go gain some logic

[noumpere]

 

 

Is this legal? A safety concern at least? Interference?

Yes. Perhaps, but not for the umpire to rule on.  No (absent some other movement / verbiage by F4).

[blue23ll]

This was one of the bunt coverage's we used in high school and that I used when coaching. Nothing illegal that I can see.

[maven]

What rule do you imagine they're violating? You mention interference, though since it's an infraction by the defense it would have to be obstruction.

 

If the batter's opportunity to offer at the pitch is hindered, then you could have catcher OBS, which is defined to include all fielders, not just F2. But it doesn't seem that's what's happening.

 

Otherwise, why would it be illegal? Just because you've never seen it before?

[wingman3110]

What rule do you imagine they're violating? You mention interference, though since it's an infraction by the defense it would have to be obstruction.

 

If the batter's opportunity to offer at the pitch is hindered, then you could have catcher OBS, which is defined to include all fielders, not just F2. But it doesn't seem that's what's happening.

 

Otherwise, why would it be illegal? Just because you've never seen it before?

 

Yes. That is exactly why.

[wingman3110]

What rule do you imagine they're violating? You mention interference, though since it's an infraction by the defense it would have to be obstruction.

 

If the batter's opportunity to offer at the pitch is hindered, then you could have catcher OBS, which is defined to include all fielders, not just F2. But it doesn't seem that's what's happening.

 

Otherwise, why would it be illegal? Just because you've never seen it before?

 

The interference was in reference to verbal interference. 

[JaxRolo]

No Verbal INT here.

Nothing illegal going on.

 

Play ball.

[noumpere]

 

What rule do you imagine they're violating? You mention interference, though since it's an infraction by the defense it would have to be obstruction.

 

If the batter's opportunity to offer at the pitch is hindered, then you could have catcher OBS, which is defined to include all fielders, not just F2. But it doesn't seem that's what's happening.

 

Otherwise, why would it be illegal? Just because you've never seen it before?

 

Yes. That is exactly why.

 

I don't mean this as harsh as it's going to sound, but if you haven't seen that before, and if everything you haven't seen before is going to be illegal, then you are going to call lots of legal things illegal.

[maven]

The interference was in reference to verbal interference.

If the defense commits it, for FED it cannot be any kind of INT. Verbal OBS, yes...

 

We've gone over this before: verbal OBS involves yelling something personnel from the opponent might yell, not just yelling as such. Base coaches don't yell "Down!" to batters.

[wingman3110]

 

 

What rule do you imagine they're violating? You mention interference, though since it's an infraction by the defense it would have to be obstruction.

 

If the batter's opportunity to offer at the pitch is hindered, then you could have catcher OBS, which is defined to include all fielders, not just F2. But it doesn't seem that's what's happening.

 

Otherwise, why would it be illegal? Just because you've never seen it before?

 

Yes. That is exactly why.

 

I don't mean this as harsh as it's going to sound, but if you haven't seen that before, and if everything you haven't seen before is going to be illegal, then you are going to call lots of legal things illegal.

 

 

Sarcasm on the internet is hard lol

[johnnyg08]

I have seen this...it's a bunt rotation. As long as he doesn't impede the batter's ability to see the pitch he's good.

[FleasOf1000Camels]

I've seen this bunt coverage before, but not with the DOWN shouts and the slide.

I'm not seeing anything illegal here, altho it seems a bit reckless and silly.