Okay... This actually happened in a baseball game this weekend (Pony Prime 14U).
Sorry, this is a bit long.
Next to last inning with the game tied bottom of the inning with one out. Ball hit to left field, somewhat of a blooper (pretty good height) with left fielder playing back. Fielder gets to the ball just as it is coming down and in his haste the ball tips off his glove and hits him in the top of the head and bounces past him deeper into left field maybe 5 or 10 feet. The player goes to the ground but it was hard to tell if it was due to him attempting to catch the ball or if he is hurt. Center fielder backs up left fielder and makes the throw in to third and goes and checks on this teammate. During all of this, the plate umpire yells "TIME" as soon as the ball hits the left fielder and runs out almost to 3rd base and hollers "TIME" again, and yells at our bench for the coaches to get out to left field which we immediately do. Since the hit hung for a while, the batter had rounded 1st and was headed to 2nd when the first "TIME" was called. When the dust settled, the plate umpire sent the runner back to 1st saying that he had called time when he saw the ball hit the kid for "safety" reasons. Of course, he was watching the left fielder and had no idea where the batter was when time was called. Our arguement was first that time could not be called in the middle of an active play and secondly, that regardless, the play would have been at 2nd and therefore the runner should stay at 2nd. By the way, before the coaches could get out to left field, the left fielder was up and he and the center fielder were laughing about what happend. The left fielder did not come out of the game.
History: This is an umpire that has a reputation for interjecting himself into a game. He is always right, knows every obscure rule and nobody can question his calls.
Questions:
We follow Official Rules of Baseball, with a very few Official Pony additions, no local rules changes.
1. He insists that the rules allow him to call "time" at any point he chooses. Do the rules allow him to call time at any point in the game regardless of the fact that a play is active?
2. If he can call time at any point, should the player have been returned to 1st base?
Just as a point of reference, the next batter pops up to the pitcher and appears to be waiting to catch the ball. Batter is running out the play and the runner on 1st moves back towards first so that he is not doubled off. At the last second, the pitcher loses the ball in the lights and misplays the ball and immediately picks the ball up and throws the runner out at second base. If the original batter in the scenario had been allowed to stay at 2nd, then the situation would have been runners at 1st and 2nd with one out. As it was, it was runner at 1st with 2 outs. The next batter hits a base hit to right center which would have scored the runner from second (would have been the wining run) but instead only moved him up to 2nd. Next batter strikes out ending the inning.
Game finishes as a tie.
Your expertise please...
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