A basketball buff once insisted that his is a contact sport. A football fanatic scoffed: “Dancing’s a contact sport. Football’s a collision sport.”
And for several anxious minutes at Sal Maglie Stadium Tuesday, baseball became a collision sport too. A quarter ton of beef slammed together down the first-base line, without benefit of pads. When the crisis had passed, in its place came a vigorous debate about right-of-way.
With a 2-2 tie in the home fifth, Power catcher Michael Crowley lifted a tall popup down the first-base line. Rochester pitcher Dustin King ambled over for it. He shouldn’t have. Hold that thought.
Here came Crowley, eyes on the prize of first base although almost certainly out. The Power plays that way – if a batter doesn’t run it out, he’s probably hurt. Suddenly, there was King in his path, and as Crowley bobbed and weaved to avoid him, he crashed into him full tilt, shoulder down. Crowley staggered away. King collapsed.
At 255 pounds, King is one of the largest players in the New York Collegiate League. At 225, Crowley casts a great shadow as well, and his momentum resulted in King’s getting the worst of the deal. (This is one reason that first basemen, facing the ball with a fishnet glove, should field anything in question in this area. For the record, generally, Pete Rose didn’t.)
The crestfallen Crowley, correctly called out for interference (hold that thought, too), came back to make amends. Minutes passed. King struggled to a sitting position, then to his feet, tried a few short tosses, then a long and proclaimed himself fit to continue. Except for one wild throw, he finished the inning without incident, continuing to the seventh, and wound up with the win.
Many of the finer minds at Sal Maglie wondered, shouldn’t Crowley have been awarded first base because of King’s obstruction? Absolutely not. One casebook puts it this way: “The fielder’s zone of protection exists from the moment the ball is hit.” He has the unrestricted right to field the ball and the responsibility falls on the runner to avoid him, even if he must run outside the baseline, for which, under those circumstances, he would not be penalized.
From time to time we see a little stop-and-go as a runner from second pauses a moment to “screen” the shortstop on a ground ball. He’d better be quick and a pretty good actor, too, or he’s going to be called out. And when the loathsome A-Rod, running toward third on a two-out popup, shouted “I got it, I got it” to successfully distract the infielders, according to the rules, he should have been called out. Base Paths didn’t know this until now.
Two guys are hurtin’ but nobody’s disabled and we all got smarter. Hallelujah, as they say.
Signal Base Paths via pollyndoug@hotmail.com
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