by Bretman » Tue Nov 10, 2009 4:00 pm
I read and post on at least a half dozen different baseball and softball discussion boards. This exact same question has come up probably more often than any other single question about any specific rule. If I had to guess, I'd say that I've seen this one pop up about twenty times just this season alone! Adding to that, it came up three or four times this year during games I umpired. I even got asked about this play twice this year by a coach or parent as I was walking through the parking lot after a game!
I guess what I'm trying to say is that this being a "force out"- as a "force out" is described by the rule book definition- is a commonly held belief. And it is also a belief that is wrong!
You already got the right answer. This is not a force out, but rather it is an appeal play on a runner leaving base early on a caught fly ball. I think that they get confused because, on the surface, they look about the same, with a fielder recording an out by simply touching a base while holding the ball.
An appeal play walks like a duck and it talks like a duck...but it is a completely different animal than a force play!
Does the run count?
When the third out of a half inning is an appeal for a runner leaving early on a catch, any runs that crossed the plate BEFORE the appeal count.
When the third out of a half inning is an appeal for a runner leaving early on a catch, any runs that crossed the plate AFTER the appeal do not count.