Coaxhing error/running error

Question
My son hit a fly ball to deep left field. He ran down to first and thought he heard the ump yell "out".  He hit the bag and started to return to the dugout.  Actually the ball bounced on the ground into the left fielder's glove. His base coach did not call him back.  The coach on the other team noticed the error, and had the fielder throw the ball in to first to get the out. My son was running with his back to the ball in left field when it bounced into the fielders glove. He had no idea it wasn't a fly out.  Whose error is it?

Answer
Mandy, thank you for your question.

You probably didn't realize that you had submitted this question to me on my baseball website, www.theoleballgame.com.

I won't recreate all that material here, as you have received and commented back on my answer.

As I did mention in my response, it was a team lapse, from coaches and players, that led to the result you describe.  There would be no one person to shoulder it all.

The batter runner should have been tracking his fly ball and making a turn at first base, looking to possibly go to second if the situation presented itself.  By tracking the ball himself, he would see whether the ball was an out or a base hit.

His backup in this situation is his first base coach, who should be telling him to make his turn and go, or stay.  A batter runner should never be running through the first base bag on a ball hit to the outfield, let alone have his back to the ball before it had been missed or caught, both avoidable by the runner and the first base coach.

When those two things fell apart, both base coaches could have alerted him to get on the bag, as could every player in the dugout, who should be paying attention to what is taking place.

Baserunning is one of those areas in baseball where a player can gain a big advantage over the competition.  Often baserunning gets overlooked in youth baseball practices, as there is seemingly so much material to cover, and so little time.

Players do not come by baserunning instincts naturally, they have to be taught and opportunities provided in practice to work on all the possible situations.  The younger the age group, the less material you need to cover; but if left to chance you can expect there will be a train wreck out there at some point.

A quote by Ty Cobb, from the book Ty Cobb, My Life in Baseball:

"Casey Stengel, when he was a young player, came up to me one night and asked, Ty, on outfield hits, how do you manage to take that extra base so often?  You don't look that fast to me."

"I'm not, I told Casey.  Rounding first, I look to see which hand the guy has used to field the ball.  If he's right handed, and the ball in his left hand, it means he has to cross over his body and turn to make the throw.

That's my edge, and I take it without hesitating."

Yours in baseball,

Rick