Rulebook wording “if in contact with its intended place on the person” or something like that. If you dive head first and your helmet is the only thing on the base, that’s fine.
Unusual plays
- Thread starter AB in DC
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As an umpire you are not to alert the manager (like in football where you’re asked if you want to accept or decline the penalty), but if the manager comes outs and says pretty much anything (e.g. “do we have to lose that run?”), then we help him with the rule and let him know he has a choice. In other words, the manager does not need to explicitly tell us “hey I want to use the option of declining the interference and taking the result of the play”, but we also don’t call time and say “hey, coach, do you want to take the penalty or not.”
Yeah. From Definitions of Terms:
TOUCH. To touch a player or umpire is to touch any part of his body, or any uniform or equipment worn by him (but not any jewelry (e.g., necklaces, bracelets, etc.) worn by a player).
(Touch) Comment: Equipment shall be considered worn by a player or umpire if it is in contact with its intended place on his person.
I have a friend who is the head coach of a DC High School baseball team. His team was in second place in the conference and needed the last place team to beat the first place team to win the conference.
Good news: The last place team used three different pitchers to no-hit the first place team.
The bad news: Those pitchers walked 19 batters.
Add in a few errors and the first place team won 7-0.
7IP, 0 Hits allowed, 19 BB allowed, 7 Runs allowed.
Good news: The last place team used three different pitchers to no-hit the first place team.
The bad news: Those pitchers walked 19 batters.
Add in a few errors and the first place team won 7-0.
7IP, 0 Hits allowed, 19 BB allowed, 7 Runs allowed.
I laughed picturing the guy diving in head first with his hands by his side, and helmet touching the bag.
Rafael Devers' cousin Jose won a game for Lake County (Guardians Hi-A) in a run-down walk-off as part of a 9-2-5-2-5, E-5. The batter was Justin Boyd – the garbage player they traded Will Benson for.
So, was this rule applied incorrectly last Fall?
https://youtube.com/shorts/v5wB3bnQynI?si=nakEZ3XvrW6OP7TS
Tagged the batting glove hanging out of the pocket
That's a great question. At first the obvious answer seems like it should be no--the glove's "intended place" is on the hand, not in the pocket.
But that's when he's batting. It's not unusual for the runner to place the gloves in the pocket when he transitions to his role as runner. Which makes "sticking out of the pocket" the new "intended place on the person." Semien certainly placed them there with intent.
Who was it that would intentionally leave his batting gloves hanging out of his back pocket so they could wave goodbye to the first baseman when he was stealing second? It sounds like Rickey, but I don't think it was him.
That was Mel Hall:
https://fpbaseballoutsider.blogspot.com/2009/06/bye-bye-mel-hall.html
I hadn't heard about the awful and disturbing turn his story took a few years ago:
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Yikes. I hope the prosecutors stuffed their back pockets with batting gloves when the verdict came in.
Mel Hall was sort of like R Kelly. He had these rumors circulating about him for years. I think there was even a (Yankees?) yearbook photo with his 16 year old girlfriend at her prom one year....
According to this article from 2014, his prom date was 15 years old. What an awful human being.
https://www.sbnation.com/2014/7/15/5883593/the-many-crimes-of-mel-hall
Seems like she (and her parents) were around the team all the time. This was not a secret relationship. Oof.
