View Message Board Guidelines
 |
Author |
TOPIC: Leading Off |
|
| Dennis (Hosanna)
June 5, 2006
9:47:13 AM
Entry #: 1484904
| Up for discussion. . .that we should do away with our league rule for leading off and simply use the official rule from Softball Canada.
I last brought this up years ago, so I thought it's about time to bring it up again. But I'd prefer this to be an honest discussion rather than just my personal rant.
Our league rule for leading off states:
The runner is out and the ball is dead if the runner leaves the base before the ball is contacted with the bat. Enforcement of this rule is considered an appeal play; that is, the umpire should not call a runner out for leading off unless appealed to by the defensive team.
The Softball Canada rule is:
Rule 8-9u: The runner is out when he fails to keep contact with the base to which he is entitled, until a pitched ball touches the ground, reaches home plate or is batted. EFFECT: The ball is dead, a “No Pitch” is declared and other runners must return to the last base legally held at the time of the pitch.
What's the difference? Taking the obvious example, suppose the bases are loaded with no outs and a big hitter is at batter. Suppose also that the batter takes a big swing, completely misses the ball, and that all three runners were anticipating contact and their momenta pulled them off their bases (after the ball was swung at and missed). What's the call?
Under the official rule, it's a strike on the batter, dead ball, and runners return to base (i.e. no outs).
Under our rule, I'm not entirely sure. Do you take 3 outs if appealed? Why? Or why not?
I'll come back to this, but first, let's change the scenario a little and assume that all three runners left base BEFORE the pitched ball reached home plate. Under the official rules, this is a dead ball, no pitch (i.e. neither a ball nor a strike regardless of the fact that the batter swung because the actions of the runners killed the pitch before the swing), the first runner that left base is out, and the other two must return to base.
I give this to illustrate one important point about the official rules. In the first case, the ball is dead before the runners left base, so there is no penalty to the runners. In the second, the runners left base early during a live ball, which kills the pitch immediately. Also, there is no such thing as runners leaving bases simultaneously--one of them had to have left first, and once that no left, the ball is dead so there is no penalty to the other runners. In other words, runners cannot generally be called out for something done during a dead ball. Under the official rules, leaving base during a dead ball is no penalty. Under our rules, we've made up a dead-ball out, and we haven't considered all the ramifications.
Do we have multiple outs on multiple runners leaving base on a swing and a miss? The ball was already dead, so none of the runners would be protected by the ball being dead. Likewise, do we negate the pitch by declaring no pitch? The strike already happened, and then the runners left base (on a dead ball), so it doesn't make sense that the strike should be negated.
Our league rule also doesn’t state that the official rule is completely abrogated, which implies that our league rule only applies in those cases that the official rule does not. This leads to an irony; in the first example, we could argue for 3 outs and a strike under our league rule (assuming it was appealed), but in the second example, the official rule applies, and there's only 1 out and no pitch (with no appeal required).
I'll close this post with mention of the intent of the rule, which is to prevent the runner(s) from gaining an unfair advantage. In slo-pitch, the base paths are relatively short, and the pitch is delivered at moderate speed, so if runners were allowed to leave base before the ball is hit, they would have an unfair advantage over the defense. If they wait for anticipated contact and the batter completely misses the ball, they gained no advantage, so why should they be penalized for something that never happened?
I confess that our team benefited from such an out in our last game, but I didn't like it (I was in the outfield, so my objections to appealing for the out weren't heard).
|
|
| Jon
June 5, 2006
4:04:05 PM
Entry #: 1486019
| Dennis, I somewhat agree and somewhat disagree with this. I don't like the fact that it's an automatic out in our league because as you said, if the pitch has already been swung at and missed, the ball is dead and there is no advantage for the runner -- he/she has to go back to their base anyway.
However, under the official Softball Canada rule, I don't like the fact that it would be up to the umpire to simultaneously keep an eye on the pitch AND the runner to decide if the runner took his/her foot off the base BEFORE or AFTER the pitch reached the plate. In my mind that would lead to arguments and indecision, not to mention the ump possibly being distracted and missing a ball/strike call. So far in our games this year, we have seen a couple of umpires who didn't really know what they were doing and missed some pretty obvious calls, both for and against our team. So, this would just put added strain on those that may not be able to handle this added responsibility. I guess that's up to that team's discretion whether certain individuals could handle it or not, but it may not seem like a problem since it may only happen once in a game. Any thoughts?
It would be nice, though, to not have to worry about another difference in rules between the round robin & the year-end tournament (where we go by the offial Softball Canada rules).
|
|
| Dennis (Hosanna)
June 6, 2006
8:43:39 AM
Entry #: 1487409
| You're right--in a one-umpire system, it is very difficult to tell precisely whether the runner's foot came off the bag before the batter swung at the ball. An unscrupulous player could certainly take advantage of this and deliberately leave base early every time knowing that the umpire couldn't tell for sure (and it's axiomatic that the umpire must be sure before he/she can call an out).
BUT it is no more difficult than other existing situations that a single umpire would have difficulty seeing. Two that come to mind:
1. Tagging up on a caught fly ball. Especially with multiple runners on base, it is very difficult for a single umpire to watch them all AND track the fly ball to judge the catch.
2. Rounding inside a base. I have personally witnessed some teams (not in our league) that deliberately do this in one-umpire systems. This usually happens with a runner on 2B and a hit to RF; while the umpire is tracking the ball, the runner rounds well inside 3B (deliberately missing the base) on the way home to gain a few steps.
In either case above, this really only becomes an issue when runners deliberately try to take advantage of the situation. Same with the official leading-off rule--it won't be problem unless some runners deliberately decide to take advantage. There may also be cases where runners simply don't know the rules or are thinking of the wrong rules (e.g. in fastball, runners may leave base as soon as the pitched ball leaves the pitcher's hand), but I trust their teammates will instruct them.
So while I recognize that judging leaving base early under the official rules IS difficult, I don't believe it would be a problem in our league.
Finally, as for the tournament, it is my understanding that the outside umpires are to call the game as per our league rules (i.e. per Softball Canada except where our rules override it). I was one of the umpires for the A/B tournament last year (Hosanna was in the C/D, so hopefully no conflict of interest), and this is how the tournament UIC presented it to the umpires.
|
|
