Expert: Martin Hoover - 4/22/2007

Question
When a runner is going to first and the firstbaseman has one foot on the bag and the other in the dirt and he is faceing sideways looking for the throw. Can the runner fold his arms and knock him down? This happen in our game and the umpires did not call this player out. The first baseman had the ball but it was drop when he was hit. I would like your answer to what the ruleing should have been. Thank you  

Answer
Marcel,

At the minor level we must understand that the players are still getting used to playing the game.  There could be numerous reasons of why the batter-runner crossed his arms:  to gut check the first baseman; or because he knew that he had to touch first base, and didn't want to run into him, etc.  Also, please keep in mind that both the fielder and the runner are entitled to first base, so it could have been just incidental contact.

I cannot give you an answer to whether I would have ejected the runner for unsportsmanlike conduct, or if I would have called him safe just because we had contact.  Either way, he is safe(if we find that he did it intentional, he's still safe, just ejected).

I will stress this again, that it is minor baseball.  You will see weird plays and weird occurrences during the season as the kids are still not of great caliber and are still learning.

Should you have any more questions, please feel free to ask.

-Martin Hoover