AboutBrian Flaspohler Expertise Questions about baseball rules, general information about the game, statistical analysis, questions about players, questions about Baseball records. I am a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and a lifelong baseball fanatic. Don't ask me questions about training - this is not my area of expertise.
Experience Lifelong fan, article about player movement from team to team throughout history.
Question Ok, I recently played a softball game with the rules of baseball identical. I'm fairly certain the ump is wrong but need some back up. Here's the situation. A runner on first base, one out so far. The batter hits a ground ball towards the first base man. The first baseman fields the ball and continues towards first base to tag the bag. As the first baseman neared the bag, the runner who was previously on first stayed on the bag until the first baseman came within a few feet of touching, then the runner stepped off the bag towards second base. The first baseman tagged the first base and then the runner came back the two feet that he had ran and planted himself back on first base. The first baseman then tagged the runner who was forced to advance to second. He was called safe due to the force being removed when the first baseman got the batter out first. I know the runner has to be tagged now, but isnt he still forced to advance to second? Can he really camp on first and still be safe?
Answer Tyler,
The umpire got this one right. The 1st baseman did remove the force when he tagged the bag. A runner would never want to do this because the double play would be easy - the first baseman would just tag the baserunner, then touch first.
