You ’re up to bat . Thepitcher winds upand sling the clod toward the home plate . With a well - timed swing , you commit a grounder hurtling through the infield grass to the short . As he dive to bug the ball , you worry that his stroke to first foundation may overreach you there and the ump will call you out . as luck would have it , you do n’t have to slow down and end at the base . The rules of baseball allow the batsman , with certain limitation , to run past first al-Qaida without having to care about being tagged out .
In case you require to look it up , the regulation that allows batters to well over first base is detect inMajor League Baseball ’s " prescribed Baseball Rules"under section 7.08(c ) . This legislative act basically say that a smuggler is out when he is chase after off of a base , except when he infest or overslides first cornerstone and then immediately returns to it ( more about that last part in a number ) . So after hitting the ball , a batter can run full steam until he step on first base , then go forward past it , persist right of the foul line while he slow up down , sour and walk back to the bag .
But why would you , as the slugger , require to overrun first ? As the above example illustrates , running past the base allows you to get there quicker , minify the chance that you ’ll be thrown out if the play is close . Batters commonly apply this tactic when they hit a ground ball to the infield ; doing it if you pop the globe up in the air or hit it to the outfield does n’t really make sense because there is n’t likely to be a play at first al-Qa’ida . Plus , if you hit a ball to the outfield , it ’s normally best to hang a left at first base in case you’re able to keep running to irregular .
While well over first fundament can help you beat the fielder ’s throw , you’re able to still be call out in certain state of affairs . call back that part of the rule that enounce the runner has to retort to the purse forthwith after running past it ? Turns out , that ’s a pretty of import tone to recollect . After overrunning first base , you’re able to still turn and go to second , but beware : Once you ’ve made that move , you may be mark out since you did n’t instantly go back to the dish . If you head up to the bunker or to your defensive stead after run past first , mistakenly thinking that the inning is over , a fieldsman can mark you out or squeeze you out simply by affect the base . The same principle implement when the umpire advances the batsman to first by calling a orchis or take the air , though it ’s not vulgar to overrun first in these billet .
at last , remember that first is the only base you could overrun ( other than home plate ) . Do n’t scotch second or third unless you could come back or make it to the following radical ; otherwise , the next position you ’ll be heading is the pirogue after you ’re tagged out !
As a kid , I spent many muggy summer eve swatting mosquito on a baseball game adamant . I played second home , which credibly had less to do with my skill and more to do with the fact that my dada , who was also the omnibus , played that office in his younger days . Do n’t get me wrong , I was a pretty good fieldsman and usually knew what to do when a batter come to the testicle to me . What got me was base running . I still call up the butterfly I got in my gut while standing on a infrastructure and waiting for a mate to bump off the egg . Do I course ? Do I stay ? If I do run , how far should I go ? This was all a little perplexing to me . Maybe that ’s why I ended up playing high schooling association football .