Walks

Question
the ball on a walk. we had a runner on 1st and 2nd and i was up to bat, and i walked.. as i was walking to 1st the catcher threw it over the pitchers head and into center field, so the 2 runners ahead of me moved up and one scored, the fielders said you couldnt do that so the ump made them go back. said it was a dead ball since i walked and there was no stealing in slowpitch, but is the ball live since i wasnt on base yet and the pitcher didnt have it? normally when ball is dead ump calls time, but they have been doing that as the ball is in the air from a fielder to the pitcher no matter if runners are on the base or in between i guess im confused on that too, same ump that blew the last call. would listen to the arguement on it either

Answer
Hi Mitch,

In SP with NO stealing, the ball is dead on a walk and runners cannot advance unless forced.

In SP w/ stealing the ball could be live or dead depending on where the pitch was.  Runners could advance on a live ball in that case.

In calling time the umpire should wait until all apparent play is completed, we do not call time in sp w/ stealing on pitches, but w/ runners on do call dead ball on pitches that deserve it.

Mark