You Make The Call......

Dropped third strike is a live ball. I think incidental contact by the batter is nothing, ...would be no different than the runner being hit by a thrown ball while legally running.

 

ball was not kicked

ball was not kicked. catcher should have caught the ball or kept it from going in the path of batter-runner. on a missed 3rd strike isn't it the defense's job to handle the ball in a way to put out the runner??

 

...now we're getting somewhere...nice post BB

Fish

 

Opinion

The way I saw the replay, the ball was kicked. The broadcasters even referenced the batter kicking the ball with her foot. We can agree to disagree on this.

 

....legally running, ok, so answer this, if a runner is in "the lane" home to 1B outside fair territory, and the 1B bag is in fair territory, when is the runner allowed to run in fair ground? What I'm getting to is ....as a batter/runner leaves the box, how long can they run in fair territory before they have to run in the lane? Whats legally running?
Or how about say the ball hits the foot and results to a ball out of bounds like going into the dugout, does the runner now take 2B and all other runners advance to the next base?
fish

 

I don't see anything in the Rule Book about this specific situation. There may be something in my Case Book, but, I don't remember where I put it. The only thing I can find, and it kinda makes sense is Rule 8-8 art 6: A Runner is Not Out when; A runner is hit with a fair batted ball after it touches, or is touched by, any fielder, including the pitcher, and the runner could not avoid contact with the ball. The reason I say it makes sense is everything about playing a dropped 3rd strike is the same as a fair batted ball. The play at first is a force, any runners who are on base are affected the same as a fair batted ball. i.e. If the bases are loaded with 2 outs and the catcher drops the 3rd strike, she can just step on the plate because the runner from 3rd is forced by the batter attempting to reach 1st. The ump must have ruled that she did not intentionally make contact with the ball after it was touched by the catcher. That's the only situation that I can find where she would be called out, if she intentionally made contact.

 

Well... I'm really confused LOL It can't be treated as a fair batted ball because if a batter comes in contact with a fair batted ball while out of the box, she is out. I knew something was telling me to shut up while I was typing my last post.

 

It must be early in the morning and I must have worked 14 hours yesterday, the runner is not out if she unintentionally contacts the ball AFTER it is touched by any fielder including the pitcher. When the catcher blocked the ball and it moved into the path of the runner...

 

intent

since the catcher touched teh ball it comes back to intent.

if she did kick the ball on purpose shes out, if not play on.

since most of us didnt SEE the play we cant come to that conclusion. either way.