A human being, not a rule book, must determine whether the player's complaint is legitimate and decide whether to grant the player additional time to recover. In The Celebrant , Eric Rolfe Greenberg cogently illustrates this little-recognized truth. He depicts the famous incident in baseball lore that got Bonehead Merkle his nickname. With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning and the score tied, Merkle is on first and a teammate is on third. The next batter hits the ball cleanly into right field for a single which drives in the apparent game-winning run.
Fans pour out onto the field in celebration.
Merkle, afraid for his safety, heads directly to the dugout without touching second base. The fielding team calls for an appeal play at second and attempts to retrieve the ball and touch second for the third out, ending the inning and negating the tie-breaking run. No one is sure because the field is swarming with fans. Nevertheless, one of the fielders, holding a ball, touches second base and claims that Merkle has been forced out and that the game is still tied. When he does finally stick his head out, he refuses to change his ruling.