I always thought that if a batter went BACKWARDS (towards home), that he was considered to have given himself up and was thus out. Here's the play (NCAA D1): Runners on 2nd & 3rd, 1 out. Batter hits slow grounder to first, fielded cleanly by first-baseman who is just a couple of steps in front of first and probably should have just touched first (but didn't because he was watching the runner on 3rd). First-baseman advances down the line toward the plate to tag the batter. Batter stops about halfway, then backs up 4-5 big steps (very obvious to everyone watching) and is now about a third of the way from home. At this point the defensive coaches are yelling to the first-baseman that the batter is out, so he stops his pursuit of the batter and returns the ball to the pitcher. The batter then runs to first and the umps call him safe. They told the coach that he can run all the way back to home before he's out. This doesn't sound right to me, ESPECIALLY with a runner on 3rd since the batter could then potentially interfere with a play at the plate. It's one thing for the batter to just stop, but can he run back to home? Is the rule different with a runner on 3rd because of the potential of a play at the plate? If so, that creates the bizarre scenario of the batter potentially getting in a rundown between home & 1st!
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