"It’s confusing — especially to live spectators. You’re supposed to wait for the ball to be ruled dead, get back into position, and then make a formal appeal to the base that an opposing player missed."
This is not entirely accurate. The ball does not have to be ruled dead. The third baseman in this case would just have needed to call for the ball and appeal to the umpire. And it sounds to me like that is exactly what happened.
If in attempting the appeal, the ball went out of play, e.g., into the stands or dugout, then when play was resumed, the pitcher would step off the rubber, throw to the third baseman, and the third baseman would appeal.
Now it was a long time ago, but we used to practice this when I was in high school. :)
The magic of baseball! That we can argue about an argument that happened in a game 75 years ago. And of course, the magic of tabletop baseball where we can replay that game, possibly even to the point of the argument if we happen to get the right rare play roll lol.
Not sure what you're saying about the loss of an umpire during a game. It's easier now since you're starting with four of them, but that's still what happens when the home plate umpire can't finish the game: they delay it until the crew chief can change into a chest protector and a larger shirt, and then proceed with three umpires. Not sure what else you could do. (Last time I remember, it was illness rather than an in-game injury -- nausea, I think.) And the article said that some Cubs games actually used two-man crews that year, so the umpires and teams wouldn't have been unfamiliar with the alignments in that situation.
"It’s confusing — especially to live spectators. You’re supposed to wait for the ball to be ruled dead, get back into position, and then make a formal appeal to the base that an opposing player missed."
This is not entirely accurate. The ball does not have to be ruled dead. The third baseman in this case would just have needed to call for the ball and appeal to the umpire. And it sounds to me like that is exactly what happened.
If in attempting the appeal, the ball went out of play, e.g., into the stands or dugout, then when play was resumed, the pitcher would step off the rubber, throw to the third baseman, and the third baseman would appeal.
Now it was a long time ago, but we used to practice this when I was in high school. :)
The magic of baseball! That we can argue about an argument that happened in a game 75 years ago. And of course, the magic of tabletop baseball where we can replay that game, possibly even to the point of the argument if we happen to get the right rare play roll lol.
Not sure what you're saying about the loss of an umpire during a game. It's easier now since you're starting with four of them, but that's still what happens when the home plate umpire can't finish the game: they delay it until the crew chief can change into a chest protector and a larger shirt, and then proceed with three umpires. Not sure what else you could do. (Last time I remember, it was illness rather than an in-game injury -- nausea, I think.) And the article said that some Cubs games actually used two-man crews that year, so the umpires and teams wouldn't have been unfamiliar with the alignments in that situation.