I probably should have stated this in my original post. I was at this game and I am the father of the pitcher in the video. Thank you AS95SY for your comments on the 1B and her leadership. The 1B came in to replace the catcher. She actually was injured on a similar play where the runner from third veered in from outside the foul line and targeted her legs when she was in the field play preparing to catch the ball. She had to miss several months because of a knee injury she suffered during the play.
As I mentioned earlier, this game was chippy from the start. The offensive team apparently has a reputation for shady happenings before and during a game. I heard this second/third-handed and have no confirmation beyond what I saw happened during this game. FYI, this video was sent to the section governing body who forwarded it to those in charge of officiating. As of now, no further action has been taken by them.
I was sitting behind the HP umpire with a similar view angle as his. The video was from directly behind the plate. From my angle in real-time, it definitely looked like she targeted the catcher to breaking up and prevent double-play. She was not sliding into the plate as some may have suggested but sliding late into the catcher. My opinion is only confirmed by the first part of the video and more so by the zoomed-in video clip. She starts outside the line. Three steps before her slide, her right foot touches the line, her next right foot plant is a good 1-1/2 feet inside the line, going into a slide. The type of side sweeping double leg slide used has only one purpose, take out the legs fielder. Luckily the catcher stepped forward when she did as the runner would have taken both legs out. Also, as others have pointed out, the runner's butt does not hit the ground until after contact. The rollover is the selling point for the runner to deceive the umpire. I would argue that the rollover is an indicator of not sliding to the plate and a slide into the fielder.
The runner never looks at the umpire to see what he called. That would be the natural reaction for most. She gets up, still not looking at the umpire, and proceeds to walk to the dugout. But notice she hesitates for a moment as she walks through the left batter's box as if to hear the umpire call of out or interference that never comes. The double-play that would have ended the inning never occurs.
The game is over and players AND parents have hopefully moved on. My intent of the original post was to see what others thought of this type of play considering rules were changed to provide more protection to the players. Current players have grown up with these rules. Both teams have committed players and are national or statewide rank HS teams, so they should know right from wrong, what is sportsmanlike and not sportsmanlike, so they cannot use inexperience or I didn't know as an excuse for this type of play. The viewpoints posted were interesting, some taking different viewpoints with the same conclusion, some opposing, some using technical legal jargon to justify and not justify the legality of the play and the penalties that should have been imposed. One interesting interpretation I had not thought of was not only the runner at home was out on a force play, but the batter-runner should also be safe at first. It is the runner (closest to play) going from 2nd to third is the one that should be also called out. So thank you all for the posts and probably continued posts.
From a parent, spectator, some time coach, and not a rules expert, this how I thought it should be ruled viewing it in real-time and at that moment:
As I mentioned earlier, this game was chippy from the start. The offensive team apparently has a reputation for shady happenings before and during a game. I heard this second/third-handed and have no confirmation beyond what I saw happened during this game. FYI, this video was sent to the section governing body who forwarded it to those in charge of officiating. As of now, no further action has been taken by them.
I was sitting behind the HP umpire with a similar view angle as his. The video was from directly behind the plate. From my angle in real-time, it definitely looked like she targeted the catcher to breaking up and prevent double-play. She was not sliding into the plate as some may have suggested but sliding late into the catcher. My opinion is only confirmed by the first part of the video and more so by the zoomed-in video clip. She starts outside the line. Three steps before her slide, her right foot touches the line, her next right foot plant is a good 1-1/2 feet inside the line, going into a slide. The type of side sweeping double leg slide used has only one purpose, take out the legs fielder. Luckily the catcher stepped forward when she did as the runner would have taken both legs out. Also, as others have pointed out, the runner's butt does not hit the ground until after contact. The rollover is the selling point for the runner to deceive the umpire. I would argue that the rollover is an indicator of not sliding to the plate and a slide into the fielder.
The runner never looks at the umpire to see what he called. That would be the natural reaction for most. She gets up, still not looking at the umpire, and proceeds to walk to the dugout. But notice she hesitates for a moment as she walks through the left batter's box as if to hear the umpire call of out or interference that never comes. The double-play that would have ended the inning never occurs.
The game is over and players AND parents have hopefully moved on. My intent of the original post was to see what others thought of this type of play considering rules were changed to provide more protection to the players. Current players have grown up with these rules. Both teams have committed players and are national or statewide rank HS teams, so they should know right from wrong, what is sportsmanlike and not sportsmanlike, so they cannot use inexperience or I didn't know as an excuse for this type of play. The viewpoints posted were interesting, some taking different viewpoints with the same conclusion, some opposing, some using technical legal jargon to justify and not justify the legality of the play and the penalties that should have been imposed. One interesting interpretation I had not thought of was not only the runner at home was out on a force play, but the batter-runner should also be safe at first. It is the runner (closest to play) going from 2nd to third is the one that should be also called out. So thank you all for the posts and probably continued posts.
From a parent, spectator, some time coach, and not a rules expert, this how I thought it should be ruled viewing it in real-time and at that moment:
- Runner from third should be ruled out by force out at home.
- Interference should have been called on the runner from third preventing the double-play.
- Batter-runner going to first should have been called out as a result of the interference. Or, as the previous comment mentions, the runner from 2nd going to third should have also been called out instead of the batter-runner. In either case, two outs would have been recorded and the inning ended.
- The runner from third should have been ejected for at the very least unsportsmanlike conduct. The intent was clear, take out the fielder, possibly injuring them. The type of slide used is an indication of this. In this case, a defenseless one who had already turned away. Some have argued she was finishing a play or she did not know was out. Possibly. But, how does taking out a defenseless player justify those arguments?
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