Every once in a while...

[renegadewolf]

Every once in a while while on the diamond we encounter something that is just stunning. Sometimes it is a wonderfully amazing play, and other times it is abject stupidity, so as you might guess I have a situation of abject stupidity.  OBR R1, R2 2 out.  Batter knocks one up the 1st base line, R2 scores, R1 rounds 2nd and is trying for three with the throw coming a little to late and he is safe.  BR stayed at first.  F5 fakes the throw back to F1 and proceeds to stick the ball in his back pocket in the hopes of drawing R3 off the bag and making the 3rd out.  Pitcher made the call easy for me because after "catching" the ball he proceeded to go up on the mound and straddle the rubber.  I balk him and advance the runners.  My question is had the pitcher never gone to the rubber, as having a player stick the ball in his uniform isn't directly covered in the rules, how would we go about handling this?  Kill the ball, allow it to continue, declare the ball lodged?  Seems like a good ole fashioned (2015) 8.01(c) formerly 9.01(c) situation

20

[Platejob29]

Kill it as soon as you see the fielder put the ball in his pocket. The ball is considered lodged as it is now inside of his uniform. I don't know the rule number off the top of my head but I distinctly remember this situation coming up at umpire school only instead in the example given at school the fielder put the ball inside his shirt instead of his pocket.

[noumpere]

And remember that in this instance the penalty is just "make it right" -- and since R3 wasn't advancing, you're not going to award any bases.

[Replacematt]

And remember that in this instance the penalty is just "make it right" -- and since R3 wasn't advancing, you're not going to award any bases.

Huh?

[noumpere]

Huh?

I am not sure this is an exact quote from PBUC, but I think it's close:

 

When a live ball enters a player's uniform or the catcher's gear, the ball

is to be ruled dead and no subsequent outs can be obtained by the defense. The umpire is then

directed to employ common sense and fairness and place the runners such that the act of the ball

becoming dead is nullified. The umpire may not, however, enforce any outs that he thinks may

have occurred had the ball remained live. Outs occurring before the ball went out of play stand.

[Platejob29]

I am not sure this is an exact quote from PBUC, but I think it's close:

 

When a live ball enters a player's uniform or the catcher's gear, the ball

is to be ruled dead and no subsequent outs can be obtained by the defense. The umpire is then

directed to employ common sense and fairness and place the runners such that the act of the ball

becoming dead is nullified. The umpire may not, however, enforce any outs that he thinks may

have occurred had the ball remained live. Outs occurring before the ball went out of play stand.

That doesn't have anything to do with awarding bases other than that it doesn't allow you to call anyone out in the event that the ball becomes lodges in the uniform while a fielder is in contact with a base with a force out. Which is obviously common sense. However you would still award bases as of it were lodged anywhere else. Lodged being the key term here. I also don't think that if you awarded everyone one base here that anyone could fault your thinking on it given that it was a willful and deliberate act by the fielder.

[Rich Ives]

That doesn't have anything to do with awarding bases other than that it doesn't allow you to call anyone out in the event that the ball becomes lodges in the uniform while a fielder is in contact with a base with a force out. Which is obviously common sense. However you would still award bases as of it were lodged anywhere else. Lodged being the key term here. I also don't think that if you awarded everyone one base here that anyone could fault your thinking on it given that it was a willful and deliberate act by the fielder.

No - you do what it says. Place them as you see fit.  FWIW lodging in the catcher's gear or umpire's gear is one base.

[Platejob29]

No - you do what it says. Place them as you see fit.  FWIW lodging in the catcher's gear or umpire's gear is one base.

To clarify I didn't mean that you should award the extra bases but that I could see the logic behind someone doing it because it's not something you see every day and it would be easy to get confused. I agree that you should place the runners as you see fit based on a lodged ball.

[noumpere]

I think part of the problem is the use of the word "lodged."  If a batted or thrown ball becomes lodged in padding, award bases.  If a pitch is lodged in catcher's equipment, award bases.

Neither of those happened.

 

If a live ball ENTERS a player's uniform, then it's like spectator interference -- do what "would have happened" (except no outs are allowed in this instance).

 

If you want to have some "extra" penalty for doing it deliberately, well, there's always ejection.  I wouldn't go down that road, though.