Expert: Andrew Mullins - 7/30/2009

Question
recently a friend told me that if there is a force at second and the ball is thrown to the 2nd baseman, he is NOT required to actually touch the base (besides from tagging the runner). his foot simply needs to be in the "general area of the base" and the ump will call him out. i thought that was bogus, and that you HAD to either touch the base or the bag, but if you dont actually touch the base, the runner is still safe. he said that they made that rule so it would decrease the collisions that can occur. can you set this straight? thanks!

Answer
No such thing as a "phantom call".....A base runner must be tagged out via the base or personally by the defensive player to be recorded as an out.

Thanks for the question....If this helped please rate me positively, if not then let me know back....

Andy