u/CVUA412

Footage: Pennsylvania NFHS playoffs / 5.18.26 / Carmichaels at Eden Christian

The pertinent OBR rules are in the video. NFHS language similarly says the pitcher "MAY lift the non-pivot foot in a step forward, a step sideways, or in a step backward and a step forward, but the pitcher SHALL NOT otherwise lift either foot."

A good rule of thumb I learned years ago was to substitute the word "shall" with "must" when reading rule sets. The word "shall" appears over 800 times in OBR. In the language of both OBR and NFHS, it does not say the pitcher "shall/must" take one step backward and then a step forward. Both rule sets say the pitcher "may" do so.

I think this is a gray area***** in rule sets that only sees the light of day in younger baseball. I get maybe one of these deliveries every summer. Unless it's a quick pitch done "in a deliberate effort to catch the batter off guard," there's no rule I can point to that says a pitcher MUST swing his free foot to the back or side then MUST follow that with a step toward home. I had two separate rules interpreters clear this up for me years ago.

*Gray area might not be the best description of this situation. Rather, I'd like a Rule Comment in the books that clarify it is legal for a pitcher to simply take one step toward home when delivering from the windup, provided it is not judged to be a quick pitch in a deliberate effort to catch the batter off guard.

In this video, if you believe it is a quick pitch, then that's your call. But I'd had this batter for three at-bats before this one. And you can see he has both hands on the bat and prepared to swing, but he does an extra little bat twirl when he sees the pitcher bring his hands together. He does it on every pitch. I don't think this 12U pitcher is savvy enough to pick up on this tendency and take advantage of it here, but who knows; he may have. I just think this is a 12U pitcher working from the windup, forgetting he has a runner on first, panicking, and accidentally delivering a legal pitch.

The annotations on this video are something I made for our local umpires and social-media channels that are beginning to pick up steam, but I'm considering not posting it at all because I really don't want young pitchers to see this and work it into their repertoire. While legal, in the hands of young pitchers, it would lead to a lot of dangerous quick pitches.

I'm hoping someone has an umpire manual or rules interpretation that covers this type of pitch delivery from the windup and all of us can get clarification on it in the comments. I love being wrong, but as of right now I don't see anything in a rule set that says this pitch delivery is illegal.

I'll admit the "camera work" is shaky. "Filming" a play with my mask is the furthest thing from my mind. But we have R2 and R3. F5 attempts a play on a batted ball. It gets past him. R2 is then hindered by F5 kneeling on the ground after missing the batted ball.

*Volume is muted to hide whether or not interference, obstruction, or nothing was called on this play*

For those in the "nothing" camp, given the quick sequence of events, at what point does that "nothing" become something? I apologize for being somewhat obtuse in this post, but I just don't want anything I type to influence opinions on the play.

Footage: WVU at Pitt Club baseball 4/25/26

I've been an umpire for 22 years, and it's embarrassing to even post this, but I recently had a golden opportunity to watch the "fourth out" rule come into play...and I missed the call. This video contains all of the rules pertaining to when the "fourth out" comes into effect. This is a very unconventional play. It obviously caught me by surprise, and I simply missed it. I won't miss it again. My only solace is that if I had noticed the situation, I would have declared the run beating the appeal play at first, the defense would have connected the dots, and they would have carried out the appeal on R3 to negate the run anyway.

I've umpired over 2,000 games, all levels you can imagine, and I've only had the "fourth out" situation one other time, in 2011 in a 16U game:

Bases loaded. No outs. Deep fly ball to right-center gap. All runners take off on the hit. RF catches the ball. One out. Defense doubles off R2 at second. Two outs. Then throw to first to double off R1. Three outs. Before the third out was made at first base (this is an appeal play, not a force play), R3 had scored. I declared the run scoring, having beaten the appeal play at first base, for the benefit of the scorekeepers. In this situation, the defense can still make their "fourth out" appeal of R3 leaving early as long as at least one infielder, including the pitcher, has not crossed the foul line to the dugout. In all the celebration and commotion around the exciting triple play, the defense rushed off the field and didn't hear me declaring the run counted, so they were unable to carry out the appeal when the dust settled.

Footage: 4/18/26 - Club baseball. Miami University at Pitt. This is a mask camera I wear that my local umpire chapter is using to recruit umpires.

***This post is in response to a recent post in this sub about the "fourth out": “Fourth” Out? Rules Question : r/Homeplate

As far as the play description at the link is concerned, the run absolutely counts since R2 was not forced to third base on the play. The batter-runner being thrown out at first is not an appeal play, so it is not subject to the "fourth out" rule. The half-inning ended when the tag was applied to R2, and R3 scored before the tag.