Baseball's Worst Rule
Ever heard of the 4th out in an inning?
Baseball’s Worst Rule
Ever heard of needing a 4th out in an inning?
Yeah, it’s a thing.
Say you’ve got runners on second and third with one out. The batter hits a line drive while the runners take off.
The line drive is caught. The defense then tags out the runner on second. The runner on third scores.
That makes 3 outs, right? Yeah — but the runner on 3rd scored.
He scores even though he didn’t tag up like he’s supposed to.
The correct thing to do here is to put the ball in play before the defense leaves the field and formally make an appeal at third base.
And it’s happened in real life.
I discovered this while looking through a 1949 edition of The St. Louis Globe-Democrat:
It’s still a rule, by the way.
In fact, there’s a Wikipedia page about it.
And, as you can see by the video above, it actually has come up in real life, believe it or not.
So what should be done?
I hate the idea of the appeal play. I wish the runner would automatically be out for failing to tag up.
The appeal play feels like something out of a 19th century parliamentary debate. It’s stiff and formal — and it doesn’t have that natural feel to it.
I wish they’d do something to get rid of it.
I’ll tell you one thing. If you asked 100 normal baseball fans about this rule, all 100 of them would reply that the run shouldn’t count. It takes a special kind of rulebook lawyer — or a baseball geek — to come up with this sort of thing.
I bet Billy Martin knew this rule, though.
I realize the term "appeal play" sounds legalistic and boring. But every time a runner is doubled up is an "appeal play".
7.10 Appeal
"Any runner shall be called out, on appeal, when –
(a) after a fly ball is caught, the runner fails to retouch the base before said runner or the base is tagged"
The only way to get the runner out for not tagging up is to touch the base with the ball. If you do it before the runner gets back, they are out. You can't just call them out for leaving early, because you have to give them the chance get back to the bag.
You could say that they are out if they leave early and touch the next base. But there are times when the runner gets past the next base and is still able to get back safely on a fly out. And I wouldn't want to eliminate that from baseball.
So I think you have to write a special rule that says the run doesn't count if they left early and the third out is made on that play. I'm not sure which is more elegant. Leaving it as is and muddling with the "4th out" or adding yet another rule.