If a player hits a home run over the fence and chooses to run all the bases, when he gets to Home plate, he steps on Home instead of crossing the scoring line.
1) Is that player out for touching home? If he is out does that run count?
I imagine he's safe since under normal home runs, batter and base runners just have to touch the next base. Your hitter met the the rule requirements. Maybe if the plate umpire also refs soccer, he might issue the batter a yellow card for delay of game.
with an OTF HR or 4 base award there is no touch 1 base rule .. the batter and all runners may immediately return to the dugout with no advancement of any bases ..
there is no actual written rule/penalty for a batter who runs it out and then steps on the strike mat other than possibly calling out play ball and telling the next batter to get in the batters box and then calling out strikes while the runner is rounding the bases .. and that would be a stretch
BJ - Apply SSUSA Rules 5.7, 8.1, 8.4(7) and 8.9(2) equally to the above scenario and see if you might have a different ruling in your second paragraph.
As your first sentence clearly says all runners MAY choose to not run out any home runs (as listed in 8.4(7). Commonly referred to as "hit and sit" BUT if the home run hitter (and any other base runners ahead of him) choose to run the bases they are compelled to comply with the other rules that i have listed above.
Yes, it might be stupid or even arrogant for the hitter/runner to run the bases but if in doing so he violates the other rules he would be declared out and the run would not score.
Believe it or not, i saw this happen last week in a Sr league game that uses SSUSA rule book as the basis for their league play and the umpire called him out for stepping on the home/strike plate and not the scoring plate.
Senior players do a lot of unusual things on the playing field i'm sure we would both agree.
T2... I was referring to 8.4(7) in my above post (NOTE: The batter may return directly to the dugout and all other runners may
return directly to the dugout. EFFECT: The concept known as “hit and sit” is permitted)
I consider the reason for any game using the HIT AND SIT rule is to save time.. so if a OTF HR is hit and the runners do not have to advance I would then have a dead ball situation.. I'd put a new ball in play and call for the next batter.. if the batter continued around the bases I would begin to call strikes as per the rule below I posted below .. also if the runners do not have to advance and I have a dead ball situation it wouldn't matter what plate the batter ended up touching.. again as I said earlier this would be a stretch and for me to do this it would have to be a unique situation where the team was just a bunch of a-- holes and acting up all game .. lol
5.10(3) • DELIBERATELY DELAYING GAME
In all time limit games, if in the umpire’s judgment a leading team is taking or
leaving the field slowly to delay the game, he will warn the manager one time to get his players to hustle on and off. If they continue to delay, the umpire may call for a batter and start calling strikes when the offending team is delaying offensively. In cases where the offending team is delaying defensively, time
may be added to the game.
BJ - i referred to 8.4(7) also with emphasis on how the SSUSA Rule is written, "the batter MAY......" but since he didn't, he must comply with the other rules that i listed as he is running the bases. And as an umpire, if he is running the bases, you can't simply stop all play and enact all the stuff you have in your second paragraph. As an umpire your position is to provide a fair and equitable playing scenario for both teams, make good judgment calls, enforce the written rules, not dream up some scenario that makes you lord and king of the land and make up stuff as you go, as you have in your second paragraph. An umpire doesn't replace rules with his opinion.
As to your listed rule 5.10(3) this refers to teams hustling on and off the field and even if it were applicable, you don't mention warning the manager??? sad that you also interpret or apply this rule incorrectly also
SSUSA Rules 5.7, 8.1, 8.4(7) and 8.9(2) are in the rule book for a reason
This happened to us last year in Vegas at the Worlds. The other team has 2 runs in, runners on 1st and 3rd with 2 outs. The batter hits a OTF homer, the runner on 3rd comes running in and slides across the home plate line. That gave them their 5 runs so I was 1st up and walked up to the umpire and asked him if he saw what the runner from 3rd did. I didnt want an out like that but was checking to see if the umpire was paying attention. He tells me he did but didnt want to give them an out like that. I thought as soon as the ball went over the fence it was a dead ball and would not have mattered what the runners did but i was not completely sure. I liked the 1st part of his answer where he saw what had happened but did not care for the 2nd part of his answer. It left me wondering if he could have called him out but didnt.
Im still not sure what the actual ruling should be after his answer. Should there have been an out there ?
