Touching a player before home plate on a homerun

[Guest Jason]

If a ball is hit for a homerun(over the fence) can any player or coach make contact with the runner or runners before they have touched home plate?

[Aging_Arbiter]

I would think that even though this is a dead ball situation, that they (member of same team) still cannot "physically assist" the runner, which I believe is how it is worded.  However, there was a clip that circulated the ol' innerweb a few years back about a girl breaking her ankle(?) rounding first on a home run. The DEFENSIVE team carried her to each bag and set her good foot down on it to tag each base.  A high five or a pat on the backside isn't assisting them.  Look at the LLWS, you have members of the opposing team giving a home run hitter high fives or a fist bump.  I think "make contact" in the OP is based on a case by case basis, and would need more details at this point to provide a direct answer.

[basejester]

Yes.

[noumpere]

52 minutes ago, Aging_Arbiter said:

I would think that even though this is a dead ball situation, that they (member of same team) still cannot "physically assist" the runner, which I believe is how it is worded. 

That restriction applies to coaches and, under some interps, retired (or already scored) runners.  It does not apply to other active runners.

 

And, never does it apply to a "high five" or similar.

[Ump29]

High fives etc no problem. Assisting -- problem.

[Mudisfun]

Eject every single player who violates this rule. How dare they congratulate each other!

 

Seriously unless there is assistance only the overly officious person is looking for a reason to get an out here... just make sure you see the touches at the bases.

[Guest Coco's Baseball Momma]

Where can I find the official MLB rule for that and/or in Pony/Little League or USSSA.  I've searched but I'm not having luck and the situation came up with a friend whose son was called out after hitting a home run and getting high fived.

[noumpere]

9 minutes ago, Guest Coco's Baseball Momma said:

Where can I find the official MLB rule for that and/or in Pony/Little League or USSSA.  I've searched but I'm not having luck and the situation came up with a friend whose son was called out after hitting a home run and getting high fived.

You can't find it.  That's why it's legal.

[beerguy55]

2 hours ago, Guest Coco's Baseball Momma said:

Where can I find the official MLB rule for that and/or in Pony/Little League or USSSA.  I've searched but I'm not having luck and the situation came up with a friend whose son was called out after hitting a home run and getting high fived.

It's up to the person who called the player out to prove the rule exists saying it is not allowed.  The rule book would be 72000 pages long if it listed everything players were allowed to do.

[MadMax]

2 hours ago, Guest Coco's Baseball Momma said:

Where can I find the official MLB rule for that and/or in Pony/Little League or USSSA.  I've searched but I'm not having luck and the situation came up with a friend whose son was called out after hitting a home run and getting high fived.

You (and I do mean you personally and collectively, as a group of parents and coaches) need to broach this topic to your local LL board, your Pony LD, and your USSSA TD!!! Umpires need to be reminded that this is not an official rule in any code. This is a concocted, made-up, fantasyland "rule" that is the result of butt-hurt, embarrassed coaches grasping at straws to get a HR taken off the board just because of a perceived lack of "sportsmanship", and they'll get naive umpires to buy into it as an "anti-assistance rule". This fabrication gets applied, and suddenly, it spreads like a virus from one game to the next.

It is imperative that LDs, TDs and UICs actively stamp out this viral "rule", and others like it (does the "Flung a bat, that's an Out" sound familiar?) by encouraging umpires to know their rulesets thoroughly, and to resist coaches beseeching them and confusing them with concoctions like this.

It's likely too late for your friend to protest, but inactivity on your part, collectively, is what allows these sorts of rotten things to take hold and spread.

[txump81]

Not a chance I am getting an out for a high five before the BR touches homeplate on a HR. Only thing prohibited is assistance by coach. 6.01a8 in OBR and 3-2-2 in NFHS.

I did have a coach "whine" about it in a LL game this year. It was a comment that was ignored. Had he persisted, just ask what rule prevents it. Another he has to turn right after overrunning first base rule.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

[ElkOil]

5 hours ago, Guest Coco's Baseball Momma said:

Where can I find the official MLB rule for that and/or in Pony/Little League or USSSA.  I've searched but I'm not having luck and the situation came up with a friend whose son was called out after hitting a home run and getting high fived.

As others said, there is no rule, so you won't be able to find it. What happens among umpires is, at one point someone misinterpreted the rule and called a runner out for high-fiving a base coach. Other coaches file protests or call umpiring associations and those umpires who are Rules Interpreters weigh in and send out memos to umpire associations and its members. So we get emails about it and the subject gets worked into clinics and training. These things can also work themselves into tests many of us take to qualify for playoff assignments and other types of games.

The upshot is that instructors tell us something like, "A high-five does not constitute an assist;" or it becomes a test question and that's about as official as it gets. 

UNFORTUNATELY, new umpires come along who don't have the benefit of all this information; they haven't read the case plays book, haven't been to training, haven't read the previous emails, haven't been to clinics. Maybe they used to be a coach and believe the old myth. I've had partners of mine who actually believed a batters hands are part of the bat. AND, maybe there's some seasoned umpires who have been around forever, but have never bothered to be students of the game and learn these things. Oh, there are reasons why these myths persist. But they are myths. We can't produce something that isn't in the book, but we can give you the benefit of our knowledge and experience. 

 

[basejester]

For Little League, there's a case play in "Make the Right Call" which explicitly states that high-fives, etc. are not physical assistance.

 

[Guest your out]

i hit the ball over the fence and was called out in little league for giving a teammate a high five after rounding third before touching home.

[Senor Azul]

Your umpire was wrong. Here’s what Little League actually teaches their umpires--from the 2019 Little League Rules Instruction Manual rule 7.09(h)--

PLAY: The batter hits a home run with the bases full. Each runner who passes the third base coach is congratulated with a “high five” by the base coach. RULING: No call. This is not assistance.

INSTRUCTOR’S COMMENTS:

Giving a “high five” or patting the player on the back after a home run IS NOT PHYSICAL ASSISTANCE. Do not call the player out for receiving a “high five” or a congratulatory pat on the back in situations such as this.

 

This rule is directed at a coach who touches (assists) a runner but it would also be applied to a runner touching another runner. The interpretation is that it is legal for viable runners to help each other as long as they do not pass.

[WilsonFlyer]

"There's enough trouble out there without having to go look for some." 999-9-1 

I use this rule a lot.