Question from a JV game last night. My son is playing first base, and there is a pop up right along the first base line. He has his hands up and is settling under the ball. He is right along the base line, and the runner is going hard down the line with his head down and just flattens my son who never saw him coming. Kind of like a punt receiver in football, and my son took the helmet right in the chest. The umpire did not call the batter out. According to my son, who was shaken up but ended up staying in the game, his reasoning was that the ball would have been foul, and the contact was not intentional. It seems that it was not at all obvious whether the ball would have been fair or foul, which is the reason the contact occured on the baseline. Was this the right call?
