Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1921-current, 1921-09-18
OUTS As RESULT
Of FORCE PLAYS,
'WRANc[E SOURCE
One Section of Rule Book Is I'm.
derstood by Mighty Few,
Says Sanb0rn.
BY &. e. sANBORN

Chicago, Sept. 17.-There's a rule il
the book which baseball folks never
! have understood and probably never
| will. The rulemakers have tried t.
make it plain and have paid for lo
of white paper in printing the 1921
guides without solving the problem 70,
thousands of rooters and hundreds o.
players. The abstruse problem has t
| do merely with when base runner il
forced and when he is not Ofterner he
is not. but the average player, specta
tor. and umpire of the open lot games
cannot understand why not
Players in commercialized baseball
represented by the major leagues and
the major minors. get along pretty well
because the umpires in those circuits
are well educated in the playing rules
and can figure out when base runner
IS forced and when he is not without
the aid of compass
The Commonest Query.
Out of every hundred queries on
baseball that come to The Chicago
Tribune TWENTY-FIVE begin like this /:
Runner on third and runner on sec
ond. one out. Baseman hits to infield-
er. 1t may be shortstop. third, seq
ond. or first base. but the rest of the
query can be read with the ewes shut.
The runner on third tries to 60 home,
but is turned back, and when he re-
gains third finds the man who was on
second when the ball was hit. is stand
ing on third. Then the defending side
the team in the field---tosses the ball
to the catcher, who steps on the plate
and understands that he has forced
out the man who was on third. Some
body on the other team. or possibly the
umpire. knows the rules and then
there is wrangle. resulting in an ap-
peal to the experts.
Entitled to His Base.
If it will help any. this is an axiom
in baseball. There is no way for
base runner to force another base
runner off his base except to make
room for batsman who has made
fair hit. and then only when one of
the base runners occupies first and
has to vacate it for the batsman who
has just become base runner. If
there is nobody on first base, a force
play is impossible.
On two, consecutive days recently the
writer saw two plays that would seem
to be contradictory. In the first one.
with runner on first base, the batter
hit loop fly into short right safely.
The runner on first was too timid to
advance and was thrown out at second
base. That robbed the batsman of his
clean hit, because the rules Imperative
~ prohibit scoring safe hit on
force play. 1t was the same kind of
a play that gave the Cubs worlds
pennant in 1908 when Merkle forgot
to touch second on safe hit.
Out on TWO Banuer.
4 Next day. with a runner on first
and one out. the batsman hit long
fly against the wall. It looked as if
the fielder would catch it. so the runner
on first hesitated and barely reached
second. The batslnan meanwhile had
run to second base on his hit. which
was a legitimate two Dagger, but his
was still there and when
The ball was played to second the man
who hit the ball was called out. Even
though he was the batsman and had
made real two base hit. he could not
,orce out the man ahead of him who
was entitled to second base until he
-ouched third or was legally put out.
The 1921 edition of the playing rules
s much more verbose than any pre-
7ious issue and if all the amateur and
.emi-pro players, managers. and nm
,ires will spend dime and a few
hours of time. they will save lot of
postage by solving many of their own !
problems. instead of asking the experts |
o do It for them. |