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| Dennis (Hosanna)
May 27, 2011
11:05:20 AM
Entry #: 3735197
| When playing any bat-and-ball sport, there is always a danger of mistakenly mixing rules from different rule sets (not to mention different house rules from different leagues).
Case in point: in my thread on tag plays, I discussed the missed-base appeal and originally stated that if a base was missed while the runner was forced, then the appeal would be considered a force out regardless of whether or not the base was still forced at the time of the appeal. Later, I had to post a correction because Softball Canada added a rule clarification this year that overturned this interpretation. Instead, a missed-base appeal is only a force out if the base is still forced at the time of the appeal. Doing some more background reading on this, I have to admit that I was mistaken in my original discussion. At least as far back as 2006 (based on the Umpire’s Casebook), Softball Canada’s official interpretation was that it is the time of appeal that matters (not the time of the base-running infraction). So why has Softball Canada added the clarification to make this interpretation explicit? It’s because in baseball rules, it’s the time of infraction that matters. I had mistakenly applied the baseball interpretation to softball.
There are some important differences between baseball and softball that do come up now and again. Appeals for missed bases are actually rather rare (in my umpiring experience, the vast majority of missed bases are never appealed because no one on the fielding team is watching for it). A more common example (especially with our unfenced diamonds) is a caught foul fly carried into dead-ball territory (DBT). In baseball, so long as the fielder does not fall down in DBT, the ball remains live and in play, but in softball, the ball is dead as soon as the fielder steps into DBT after the catch, and runners are awarded one base (two bases if ruled intentional).
Other examples? If I think of any, I'll add them, but if any one else thinks of some, please throw them up here.
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