Tuesday, November 14, 2017

Wild Pitch - Does a "coached" runner advance?

Greetings all!
At the fabulous Chicagoland APBA Fall Tournament hosted by Rob Spatz and won by Rich Zawadzki an interesting question came up.



Situation:

Slow runner on 1st.



Manger is "coaching" the slow runner.




Result is "Wild Pitch, runner to 2nd."



The rules say:




There is a 6th rule, but it only pertains to 1st and 3rd double steals and the trailing runner.

Does he advance?


Discuss, and GO...........



4 comments:

  1. The other situation it doesn't explicitly state is a runner getting picked off a base. I think that falls under caught stealing though and so it would also be negated. Since the book says nothing about changing the result for a passed ball or wild pitch, that means the runner DOES advance.

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  2. I say “Nay” to the base advancement, but I can not do so dogmatically. Perhaps a clarification is necessary from APBA Headquarters in Alpharetta?

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  3. I say No as well, like Rich Z stated, I can see the base coach telling someone like Evan Gattis to hold on 1st regardless what happens, then a wild pitch happens, his reaction time with already knowing he's not running, will likely stay. I have seen instances with slow baserunners on first, and most always stay on a wild pitch. True, on that there is no clarification or rule on this particular case. Maybe tourney runners can add a rule on it, although the likelihood of it happening again is like a million to one chance.

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  4. I agree, when playing my "house rules" I don't allow it. However, it is not recorded as a WP unless the runner advances, if he does not advance, it is just a ball. That makes me inclined to allow a coached runner to advance.

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