Ball Travels Out of Bounds...

Question
QUESTION: Dear Dr. Mark R Ambrose,

During a game tonight, the following happened:

We had a runner on 1st -our next batter hit an infield ground ball. The opposing team attempted to throw the batter out at first, but the ball traveled out of bounds. At the moment the ball hit the ground and slowly traveled out of bounds. When the ball went out of bounds the batter was a third of the way to second -and the runner that started on first was half way between second base and third. The umpire's ruling was that the runner only gets to advance to the base that they were running too -the runner between first and second only advances to second -and the runner between second and third only advances to third. The unmpire further stated that the runners only advance to the next base from the moment the ball leaves the fielders throwing hand -from my research this is somewhat correct. But the runner is awarded two bases from when the ball leaves the fielders throwin hand???

To make matters worse the umpire took my question of the ruling (and a teammates questioning of the ruling the next inning) as a personal insult to him. Which eventually led to him disqualifying me from the game.

Please advise me on base runners advancing when the ball travels out of the field of play.

Thanks, Mike   

Also, because of the way our questions of the rule was handled by the Umpire -I would like to file a complaint or protest. Please advise on the process?

ANSWER: Hi Mike,

On a thrown ball that unintentionally goes out of play the rule is very simple....it is 2 bases from the last base touched at the time of the throw.

It doesn't matter where the runners are when the ball goes out of play only where they were when the ball left the fielder's hand.

In ASA ball there is a district umpire-in-chief.  The 1st place to start if you believe you were treated unfairly is discussing the matter with him or her.

mark

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Mark,

Does it matter that the ball hit the 1st baseman? Are the two bases awarded still from when the ball was thrown? Or from when the last infielder touched the ball?

Thanks Again, Mike

Answer
Hi Mike,

It doesn't matter the the ball hit F3 or that F3 touched it if they never had possession.  It is still awarded from the time of the throw.

The only exception is if a fielder loses possession of the ball and the ball leaves play, the runner is awarded 1 base from the last base touched WHEN the ball go out of play.

Mark