Foul Balls

[Guest Graham Wright]

When does a foul ball become live again? Runner on third. Batter hits a foul ball down the right field line. Rightly called foul. Right fielder retrieves the ball and throws it to the pitcher. The pitcher muffs the catch\ and the ball careens away. Can the runner at third score after the muff?

[Velho]

25 minutes ago, Guest Graham Wright said:

Can the runner at third score after the muff?

No.

A foul ball can only become live again when the umpire says "play". This should generally only happen when the pitcher has the ball on the rubber and batter, catcher, & umpire are ready at the plate.

That said, this is not unheard of. It unfortunately happened in a high school softball playoff game last year. Attention lapses across the board (more likely late in the game and/or heat), folks get exited and start running around.

[LRZ]

OBR 5.06(c)(5): "The ball becomes dead and runners...return to their bases, without liability to be put out, when...[a] foul ball is not caught, in which case runners return to their bases. The umpire-in-chief shall not put the ball in play until all runners have retouched their bases...."

OBR 5.12(b)(8): "After the ball is dead, play shall be resumed when the pitcher takes his place on the pitcher's plate with a new ball or the same ball in his possession and the plate umpire calls "Play." The plate umpire shall call "Play" as soon as the pitcher takes his place on his plate with the ball in his possession."

Guest Graham Wright, when the hit resulted in a foul ball, the ball became dead, and it had not yet been made live by the umpire declaring "play" when the pitcher possesses the ball while on the rubber. Not only was the pitcher likely not on the rubber, he did not "possess" the ball for these purposes.

[Dottelife]

When batter is in box and pitcher is on mound PU will say play and point. The ball is now live. Unfortunately some umps do not always do this and it can end bad. 

[Thunderheads]

No, no, no, .... a thousand times, NO!

Your situation happens after a dead ball, ....NOTHING can happen until what's explained by the others.

[Mudisfun]

Well, there always is this gem to consider: 

 

 

 

[Thunderheads]

5 minutes ago, Mudisfun said:

Well, there always is this gem to consider: 

 

 

 

I knew I should have locked this ...........  

[beerguy55]

1 hour ago, Thunderheads said:

I knew I should have locked this ...........  

Lindsay is actually kind to these umpires...The Jomboy video is a little more direct.

I am curious if anyone knows if there was any follow up on this incident, especially since all three of them put their heads together and got the wrong call collectively.