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[slapshot]

Are you saying that runners can't slide in slow pitch?

Believe it or not, in some leagues it's against the rules to slide. When I was living in upstate NY, I played in a slow pitch league where we were only allowed to slide into home. Needless to say, it was the worst league I ever played in.

I played in a slow pitch league where sliding was an automatic out. Most of the men in the league were in their late 40s/early 50s, and they felt it was safer to just call the runner out if the throw beat him to the bag (glorified force out).

No one had issues with it, and it was a bit of a relief to not worry about sliding burns.

[epper]

Is this slow-pitch softball? If that's the case, why wasn't time called?

Seeing as he said the runner "slid under the tag at home", I'd say no.

Are you saying that runners can't slide in slow pitch?

In my league, every play at home is a force play (no tagging needed) and there is a line perpendicular to the baseline you run across instead of touching the mat/plate. I thought this was universal?

Also, sliding into a bag is illegal too (diving back to a base is not).

[-kj]

I have played in a tournament that played by such neutered home plate rules... and it was weird.

[AnythingChicago]

Two outs, runner on third, right-handed batter at the plate. The pitch is taken for ball one, and the runner on third is dancing off the line. The catcher tries to snap a throw to the third baseman, but the ball he threw hits the batter's bat -- he is still standing in the batters box, which is allowed. The catcher has to throw around him -- and the bat hits the batters neck upon contact with the ball, and the batter goes down in pain. The ump calls it a live ball (???) and the catcher goes to get it, as the runner on third is sprinting home. The catcher fires towards home in an attempt to prevent the runner from taking home. The throw is right on target, but hits the batters helmet while he is crouched down recovering from the injury. The ump calls the runner out thus ending the inning. The batter leads off the next inning.

Did the ump make the right calls?

[loogodude90]

Two outs, runner on third, right-handed batter at the plate. The pitch is taken for ball one, and the runner on third is dancing off the line. The catcher tries to snap a throw to the third baseman, but the ball he threw hits the batter's bat -- he is still standing in the batters box, which is allowed. The catcher has to throw around him -- and the bat hits the batters neck upon contact with the ball, and the batter goes down in pain. The ump calls it a live ball (???) and the catcher goes to get it, as the runner on third is sprinting home. The catcher fires towards home in an attempt to prevent the runner from taking home. The throw is right on target, but hits the batters helmet while he is crouched down recovering from the injury. The ump calls the runner out thus ending the inning. The batter leads off the next inning.

Did the ump make the right calls?

I agree with the call of the live ball. In a situation like that, I would consider the batter to be part of the playing field.

The batter got hit by the catcher's throw (unintentional by both parties). I would consider this at the same level as the catcher just making a bad throw, or dropping the ball. The fact that the batter got hurt is irrelevant, IMO.

HOWEVER, I don't get why the runner was called out.

I would have called the runner safe. But I'm not an umpire, and there may be intricacies of the rules that I have no idea about.

[AnythingChicago]

Two outs, runner on third, right-handed batter at the plate. The pitch is taken for ball one, and the runner on third is dancing off the line. The catcher tries to snap a throw to the third baseman, but the ball he threw hits the batter's bat -- he is still standing in the batters box, which is allowed. The catcher has to throw around him -- and the bat hits the batters neck upon contact with the ball, and the batter goes down in pain. The ump calls it a live ball (???) and the catcher goes to get it, as the runner on third is sprinting home. The catcher fires towards home in an attempt to prevent the runner from taking home. The throw is right on target, but hits the batters helmet while he is crouched down recovering from the injury. The ump calls the runner out thus ending the inning. The batter leads off the next inning.

Did the ump make the right calls?

I agree with the call of the live ball. In a situation like that, I would consider the batter to be part of the playing field.

The batter got hit by the catcher's throw (unintentional by both parties). I would consider this at the same level as the catcher just making a bad throw, or dropping the ball. The fact that the batter got hurt is irrelevant, IMO.

HOWEVER, I don't get why the runner was called out.

I would have called the runner safe. But I'm not an umpire, and there may be intricacies of the rules that I have no idea about.

You are basically right. It was a live ball. But MLB rule 7.08G states that with two outs, the BATTER should have been called out not the runner. The batter has to get out of the way after he was intially hit. He could be dying on the ground, but if he was in the way and got hit again in that situation, he'd still be out. But with less than 2 outs, the runner is out. So the ump almost got it...