Leaving base early

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The thread about changing rules made me want to comment but did not want to hijack that thread.
At tournament last week, our runner upon returning to 1st after a pitch, stepped backwards towards dugout and was using the foot that was in contact with base to brush the dirt off the bag. Ump calls her out for leaving the base when ball was in the circle . You gotta be kidding me! I know someone will probably quote the rule that says something like you have to maintain contact with the base. But I don't really think what she did was against what the intent of the rule really was. Runner did not even know what she did.

 

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I will quote a couple of rules...but not to bash you about them!

There are two different rules that might apply here. One is the Look Back Rule. If the Look Back was in effect (ball in circle) the runner may not: Leave a base once she is stopped on it; Stand still in one spot while off the base; Stop twice between bases, or; Reverse direction a second time.

You titled this post "Leaving Base Early". That is actually a different rule and a different violation. That rule involves a runner taking her lead off as a pitch is released. The rule says that the runner is out if she "fails to keep contact with the base...until the ball leaves the pitcher's hand".

Which rule applies depends on what point of game action is taking place. The Look Back is designed for when there are active runners and the ball first comes back into the circle. The "Leaving Early Rule" is for when the pitcher is in position to pitch and making her delvery.

I don't really consider anything this runner did as a violation of the spirit or intent of the Look Back Rule, which was designed for the sole purpose of ending delays in the game by the runner playing "cat and mouse" games with the pitcher.

It's not really a "leaving early" violation...except in the strictest technical sense that this runner may have momentarily "lost contact" with the base. She wasn't doing this as any sort of attempt to advance to the next base- and, apparently, not when the pitcher was actually throwing a pitch.

Could an umpire call this minor technical violation and support the call with the written rule? Yes. Should he make this call with respect to the spirit or intent of why these rules are in the book? I would say...NO!

It can be a slippery slope when an umpire starts basing his calls on the "spirit and intent" of a rule, instead of how the rule is actually written. That can lead to personal opinion being inserted into a call. And not every umpire is going to know the spirit and intent behind every single rule in the rule book. But these are two particular rules where I believe most trained and experienced umpires would agree: Minor technical violations of these rules that are not related to a player trying advance to the next base or gain an unintended advantage can be ignored.

We have an acronym for making a call like this: OOO. That stands for "Overly-Officious Officiating"!

 

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When ump called her out his exact words were that the runner is out, she left early. But the pitcher was not in the act of pitching. I also understand the look back rule and she had already made it back to the bag and was simply in the act of brushing off the bag. Ump stated that maintaining contact is the rule and that when some teams are in the lead and want to end the inning quickly they have their players step off the bag to get called out so he has to follow the letter of the rule. But we were down 5 runs so that is obviously not what was going on either. As a side note we lost by 2 so that particular call did not cost us the game. But everyone felt it was a cheesy call none the less.

 

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Bretman, I love your posts and replies. Thanks for all the help and support you give to us.

 

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Sometimes you have to umpire "with the book" as opposed to "by the book".

Umpiring "with the book" means to enforce a rule with the underlying spirit and intent with which it was written. You can't always do that with every rule in the book, but this is an example of a rule where many umpires will.

Umpiring "by the book"- while usually an admirable goal- can lead to a call like this one. This runner was doing nothing to give herself an advantage not intended by the rules and nothing that would place the defense at a disadvantage. The rule that the umpire called her out for has nothing to do with a runner momentarily losing contact with the base as she brushes it off, or shifting her feet on the bag as she gets into position for her lead off.

Neither the "losing contact" rule or the Look Back rule were intended as "Gotcha!" calls by the umpire, to ring up outs for minor technical violations that have nothing to do with advancing to the next base, gaining an advantage or delaying the game. But, unfortunately, sometimes they get enforced that way.

Personally, I would not call this. If it happened in my game...I think that I would conveniently just happen to not see it!

 

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I would also like to say thank you to Bretman, also. You give great explainations of rules with a bit of common sense. How you just explained it is how I feel umpiring should be. Thanks for putting up with all our questions, I have learned alot about the rules through all of your posts.

 

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We had a girl on our HS team this year get called out because for whatever reason on the way back from leading off of 2nd base decided that her socks needed pulled up. She was on her way back to the bag and stopped 6" from it and pulled up her socks twice in a row. Ump let the first one go but called her out the 2nd time. Honestly that was kind of a cheap but correct call but if a HS senior goes that brain dead then she needed to be called out.