This Week in Baseball Weekly Information for Ohio Baseball Coaches Jerry Snodgrass, Baseball Sport Administrator, OHSAA 2016 “Plays of the Day” Spring, 2016 Compilation of “Plays of the Day” From Baseball DOD, Dan McGinnis Play #1 The Play: After bunting the ball fair in front of home plate, the right-handed batter, as he attempts to advance to first base, has his left foot on the ground, outside the batter's box, in front of home plate. His right foot is still on the ground in the batter's box. The bunted ball hits the ground and spins back, hitting the batter on his left leg, the one in front of home plate. Immediately, the nice quiet little game did an about-face; with more noise than a dugout in a close softball game. The umpire correctly kills the play and awaits the two coaches descending on him like the Indians in an old western movie. One coach is adamant that it is an out; a runner hit by a batted ball. The other coach claims it is nothing more than a foul ball. The discussion between the two coaches would have been entertaining except for the fact that the umpire knows one of them will be very unhappy shortly. The Ruling: This is a foul ball. Because he still has one foot in the box, he is considered to still be in the batter's box. Whenever the batter is hit by a batted ball while in the batter's box, we have a foul ball. Would it be the same call if the batter still had his left foot on the ground completely outside the batter's box, but had his right foot in the air, not touching any part of the batter's box? It would not. In this case, the batter's box is empty, and the batter-runner would be out due to his being hit by the batted ball. The game is indeed a game of inches. Play #2 The Play: The base umpire, moving slowly as he thought the batter-runner would not advance on a easy once bouncer to the outfield, is in the basepath between first and second. The batter-runner, thinking he can take advantage of the defense reacting slowly as well, accelerates after hitting first and runs smack dab into the base umpire. The batter-runner and the umpire both take a tumble and by the time the batter-runner manages to get up, the first baseman has the ball and tags him out. As you can imagine, one dugout roars in anguish, the other howls in laughter. One team expects an out; the other is adamant that umpire obstruction, or umpire interference, or umpire stupidity be declared. Again, a nightmare situation. The Ruling: Unfortunately, the player is out. Umpire obstruction can occur if the plate umpire obstructs a throw by the catcher, and can interfere if the base umpire is hit by a batted ball before it passes an infielder. This play is another example, of how the most innocent seeming play can turn into a mud pot in a manner of seconds. Play #3 The Play: With the bases loaded, no outs, and the runner on third breaking for home, the batter swings at a pitch, hitting it in the air between the pitching mound and home plate. The plate umpire declares "Infield fly, if fair." The ball lands on the ground and rolls back toward home. As the runner from third begins his slide to home, the ball contacts him over fair ground. The place went totally silent, not sure what they just saw. And then all sorts of help erupted. The Ruling: A couple of rule issues are important to remember as one works his way to the correct enforcement. The conditions were in place for an infield fly (runners at least on first and second and less than two outs). The plate umpire correctly declared "Infield fly if fair, batter is out." The fact that the pitcher did not complete the catch did not take that declaration off the board. When the ball rolled into the sliding runner from third, and contacted the runner over fair ground, that made the ball fair, so the batter is out because of the infield fly. That is how the rule works. Now, we have the batter out, but we also have a dead ball, as the batted ball has hit a runner without first passing an infielder. So, we have the batter out on the infield fly, the ball dead for hitting the runner sliding, and...the runner sliding from third is now out for being hit by the batted ball. Again, that is how the rule works. All we can do is enforce them. After the enforcement, we will have runners on first and second with two outs. So, without ever touching the ball, the defense has turned a double play. Play #4 The Play: With a runner on first base, the batter hit a drive to left-center field. As the runner from first slid into third base, he dislodged the base from its usual spot and moved it a few feet into foul ground. At the same time, the throw from the outfield hit the sliding runner and bounded down left-field line. The runner was easily able to get up and advance to home to score, and the batter, who had taken second base, now attempted to advance to third. The batter, not quite sure what to touch, decided to touch the spot where the base had been, and continued on to score when he touched home plate. The defense then legally appealed that the batter had missed third base. The Ruling: When the defense appealed that the runner missed third, the umpires called the runner out, which created a brief, but intense discussion. In actuality, the batter should be called safe on the appeal, and his run allowed. A succeeding runner merely has to touch or occupy the space/area where the base should be to be safe or judged to have touched the base. Fortunately, the run didn't matter by the time the game ended. Play #5 The Play: In the third inning, with a runner on second base, the number five hitter for the home team steps in to hit, batting out-of-order as the number four batter should be hitting. The number five batter walks and reaches second base when ball four gets by the catcher and goes all the way back to a deep backstop. The runner on second reaches third base, as he was stealing on the pitch. The visiting team, before the next pitch or play, appeals the batting out-of-order. The Ruling (a): The umpires enforced the batting-out-of order correctly, but then the “baseball gods” decided to have some fun. 2 innings later, there is a visiting team runner on first base, when the wrong batter steps to the plate. The batter eventually walks and and advances to second, when ball four gets by the catcher. The runner that was on first base advances to third. The home team appeals, before the next pitch or play, the batting out-of-order. The 2 plays, to the visiting team's head coach, looked the same. He expected the same enforcement for his team that the home team had received just a little bit earlier. Ahhhh, but things may not always be as they appear! The Ruling (b): In the batting-out-of order scenario in the third inning that involved the home team, the umpires ruled the proper batter out (correct call), but left the runner on second stay at third (again, correct call). The runner on third was allowed to stay because his advancement was on his own; it did not result from the play on an improper batter. When what looked like the same scenario occurred to him a couple of innings later, the visiting team's head coach thought that his runner, too, would get to stay at third base. However, the rules would not agree. As before, the proper batter is called out, but the runner now on third must return to first base; his advancement was due to the play of the improper batter. Play #6 The Play: A right-hander is listed on the official lineup card as the starting pitcher. In the second inning the opposing coach notices that a left-hander has been on the mound since the start of the game. He storms to the plate insisting that the right-hander must be put on the mound and pitch to at least one batter. What should the plate umpire do? The Ruling: It is true that by rule, a starting pitcher is to pitch until the first opposing batter has been put out or has advanced to first base. There are some who think this means that if the starting pitcher cannot, for some reason, say his elbow or shoulder begins hurting as he takes his warm-up throws, or he back talks the coach, he still must go out to the mound and at least intentionally walk the first batter. This is simply not true. If the starting pitcher does not face one batter, the penalty is that while he may return and play another position, he cannot return to pitch in that game. Had the opposing coach caught this before the game started, the situation could have been handled at least in a manner where everyone knew what was occurring.