At the time I wondered, isn’t there some limit on how far you can go to elude the tag? and after checking the MLB rules, ISTM that Ichiro should have been called out. MLB rule 7.08(a)(1) says: “Any runner is out when he runs more than three feet from his base path two avoid being tagged…A runner’s base path is established when the tag attempt occurs and is a straight line from the runner to the base he is attempting to reach safely…”
Did Ichiro, after passing home plate while eluding the catcher’s tag, stay within a three-foot radius of home plate between then and e time he finally tagged the plate? I’d have to see the replay again, but I doubt it.
What really surprises me is that Bruce Bochy decided to put all five starters on the roster for this series. I mean - c’mon! - not all three of Lincecum, Zito and Vogelsong deserved to take up roster spots in a 5-game series on a team that struggles with hitting. If it were my call, keep Zito and leave the others. Yes, leave Lincecum off the playoff roster, at least for this series.
Another thing: they brought Aubrey Huff as a left-handed batter to pinch hit! This isn’t the Aubrey Huff of 2010 (.290 BA and 86 RBIs). This is the Aubrey Huff of 2012 (.192 BA and 7 RBIs)! No wonder they can’t hit!
Who to bring instead of Aubrey Huff? How about Francisco Peguero? Sure, he’s hitting only .188 but Peguero brings speed on the base paths, as a pinch runner.
Oh wait, a hitter has to get a hit before you can pinch run for him. Okay, forget that logic.
It’s hard to say. I looked at a YouTube clip and it’s pretty close. Probably too close to call him out. In the end it didn’t affect the outcome of the game, so that’s good.
It wasn’t even close. He was WAY outside any 3-foot circle around the plate as he looped around behind the plate. Unless that rule means something way different from its apparent meaning, he should have been called out. Good thing it didn’t affect the outcome.
I thought the same as RTF here–how much further could Ichiro have run out of the baseline before he was called out for that alone? I think it must have been inches–otherwise a good broken field runner could just run halfway to Towson and back and hope to juke the Yankee catcher when he gets close to the plate. I would have liked to see Ichiro called out there.
The box that the catcher sets up in extends 8 feet behind the rear corner of home plate, according to Diagram 2 accompanying Rule 1.05 in the MLB rule book. Ichiro was treading the back line of that box as he made his circuit around the plate, if you look at the video. So he was more than just marginally outside the three foot radius - and I agree that you’d hate to see a guy called out for being four feet away rather than three. But this was eight feet rather than three.
My apologies for the absence of links, btw. I’m on vacation, and my limited Web access is via an iPad which is a new experience for me. I have no idea how to copy a URL, for instance.
At any rate, google ‘MLB rules’ for the rule book (biggish PDF)’ and for now, the vid is at a link off the game story on the MLB site titled something like ‘Ichiro makes like “The Matrix”’.
I think a base runner should be able to run anywhere within the confines of the park between bases, but only if they play Yakkity Sax from the Benny Hill Show while the fielders chase him.
He definitely steps on the back line, and then plants a foot in the corner between the back line and the lefty batter box. I didn’t realize that box went back 8 feet. So, yeah, I’d say he could have been called out there. Not sure if any leeway is given at the plate rather than between bases.
It’s when he avoids the initial tag that he might have been out of the basepath(if that even applies at the plate), it’s his momentum that carries him to the back of the catcher’s box.
He had already avoided the tag, he was not avoiding the tag as he went past the plate.
Watch any runner rounding first, he certainly leaves the basepath but if he’s not avoiding a tag, he’s good.
Exactly! Per the rule, what the tag attempt does is define the runner’s basepath. The runner rounding first with nobody trying to tag him has no basepath to be out of, so it’s all good. But once the tag attempt is made, his basepath is defined, and he can’t stray more than 3 feet from it. That’s the only role of the tag attempt that the rule states. Whether or not the defensive players continue to try to tag him, he must stay within three feet of his basepath. He didn’t.
Anyway, it didn’t affect the outcome, thank goodness.
Pablo Sandoval? My wife and I, quite fat ourselves, make constant jokes about how he must’ve had to take a brownie break between second and third, or how he must have thought that line drive that hugged the foul line was a Hostess Snowball, the way he knocked it down.
