Let’s say a runner is going to second base. The runner slides head first and is touching the fielder’s glove, which is touching the base, but the fielder doesn’t have the ball in his glove, he has it in his free hand. So, the runner’s hand is touching the fielder’s glove and the fielder’s glove on the base, the fielder reaches down and tags the runner with the ball. Is the runner safe or out?
the connection is there and the rest is semantics. He’s OUT!
- Is this a force play? If so, the runner is out.
- Is it a tag play? If so, is the runner’s hand on nothing other than the fielder’s glove. He is not in contact with the base in any way? That’s unlikely. But if so, he’s out.
I have never seen a fielder do that.
I was just wondering. Today I saw a player touching the base with her hand, but the base was totally covered with dirt. I suppose that’s ok though? I’m just wondering how nitpicking the legal aspect of touching the base actually is.
The only way I can think of the runner being safe, is if the fielder was blocking the base while he was not making a play on the runner. If this happened, the umpire could call interference.
No fielder could possibly be wearing a glove large enough to block off the entire base, so if it goes the way you have described it cannot be interference. Therefore, the runner is out **at the moment the fielder touches him with the ball, ** unless of course he’s got the brains to just reach around the globe and touch the base.
(It is curious how many people I have met who think you can tag a runner with your glove even if the ball is in your other hand. You can’t.)
As hightechburrito points out, though, if the fielder was blocking the whole base without the ball, you could call it obstruction.
With respect to dirt covering the base, the runner would be assumed to be touching the base.
This is the key point to the ambiguously worded OP. I’m not sure what the OP meant. Why is the fielder’s glove on the base, yet the ball in his other hand? It would make no sense for the fielder to have his glove down by the base, yet the ball in his other hand.
I think that it is safe to say that in reality the human eye/brain are just not able to deal with half of the crap that people want to debate.
Bob, what the heck are you talking about?
I’m saying that you need to draw the line and move on as far as calling plays in sports. unless you are willing to have a huge backlog of plays to be scrutinized and instant relpayed to death in the name of fun.
That then leads to a new definition of fun and that’s no fun.
I can see the OP’s question being more than theoretical. Not all baseball is professional. While this issue coming up in pro ball is likely to happen rarely, if ever, I can easily imagine in amateur baseball some player who doesn’t grok the concept that the tag MUST be with the hand the ball is in. I can easily imagine in Little League a runner being called safe because the fielder didn’t know this.
Unless it’s the catcher, of course.
As far as the OP, fielders have been known to lose their glove during a play. It’s unusual for this to happen, but so is seeing the entire base covered with dirt. But after watching games at Wrigley Field for many years, I am certain, “Anything can happen”.
I umpire and I see this happen every couple of weeks. No kidding. In the last three years I have probably had to explain to two dozen people that you can’t hold the ball in one hand and tag people with the glove in the other. These are adults, not kids. Some have played this game for years.
I won’t even try to count the number of times I’ve had to explain that you cannot score a run if the third out was a force play, or that if you force the runner out at first you then have to tag the guy who was running to second. Don’t even get me started on the infield fly rule.
I don’t understand Bob’s problem. This isn’t a minor detail, it’s a rather fundamental issue to know that if you’re going to TAG someone, it has to be with the ball. It’s also not a dumb question to ask - the only dumb questions are the ones that go unasked.
So, I guess this is the answer:
If a foreign object is covering the base, and the offensive player is touching the foreign object in such a way that the player would be touching the base should the foreign object be removed, then the player will be called safe ONLY IF that foreign object is not considered to be a part of either an offensive or defensive players standard uniform and gear. *
So, dirt, hotdog wrappers, meteorites, etc., the player is SAFE. Hats, gloves, spikes, etc., the player is OUT.
- Uh oh: When a runner is going to first base after hitting the ball, and the first baseman’s foot is on the base, the runner steps on the first baseman’s foot, never touching the base, but the runner reaches the base before the first baseman catches ball. The runner is safe?
I never saw anything complicated about the infield fly rule. Runners in a forceable position, less than two outs (right?), any pop fly in the infield is an automatic out. Keeps the defense from intentionally letting the ball drop then making the easy double play.
RickJay,I don’t realy have a problem just an opinion that I base on facts that I have picked up durring 42 years of life. I should have put two and two together and figured out that your rickjay grandson of abner boubleday :wally
Doh! I don’t even like sports exept womens gymastics.
doubleday, doubleday,doubleday!
Thanks. I haven’t watched much adult amateur baseball in my life, but have seen a not insignificant number of little league games. Including some where this situation came up. bob fortuna: as you have read, this isn’t just some hypertechnical theoretical “what if” baseball rules debate. This is a fundamental rule of baseball that umpires below the professional level actually make calls on.
You don’t need to count the times you have had to explain it. but just one cite would be nice!
Though this has already been settled I thought I’d provide the official MLB rule.
From the official rules of Major League Baseball (section 2.00):
So, obviously you cannot tag someone out with anything other than the hand or glove that is holding the baseball.
This could actually happen on the professional level and it wouldn’t take a big stretch for this to happen on the professional level.