Baseball rules corner: appeal plays involve restrictions on both offensive, defensive teams.(Brief Article)

RESTRICTIONS REGARDING APPEAL plays are placed on both the offensive and defensive teams, To begin with there are five appeal plays in baseball: (1) batting out of turn, (2) failure of the batter-runner to return to first base immediately after overrunning or oversliding, (3) failure of a runner to retouch his base after a fly ball is caught, (4) missing a base while advancing or returning, and (5) failure to touch home.

If the ball remains alive, the defensive team merely needs to throw to the base being appealed alerting the umpire as to the improper actions of the runner. In cases where the ball becomes dead, the appeal cannot be made until the ball is in the pitcher's hand while he is on the rubber and the plate umpire signals play. At that point, the pitcher can either throw from the rubber to make the appeal or step back off the rubber to make his throw. In either case, it must be done before the next pitch, play, or attempted play.

Generally speaking, the appeal play process places most requirements on the defense. But on occasion, the offensive team can become the main focus.

Take what happened on April 2, 2001, at Camden Yards in Baltimore where the Orioles hosted the Red Sox. In the bottom of the fifth inning, the Orioles had Melvin Mora on first base with one out when Brook Fordyce hit a line drive to Boston third baseman Shea Hillenbrand. The Red Sox rookie threw errantly to first to double up Mora and the ball went into dead territory.

Umpire Brian Gorman instructed Mora to go to third base, reminding him that a runner gets two bases on an overthrow that goes into dead territory. Apparently, Mora took Gorman literally and went directly to third without touching second base. Baltimore manager Mike Hargrove said, "I couldn't stop laughing a few innings later, but I wasn't laughing at the time."

Mora's running faux pas put his team in jeopardy per rule 7.10-b which states, "When the ball is dead, no runner may return to touch a missed base or one he has left after he has advanced to and touched a base beyond the missed base."

The moment Mora touched third, he could not return to touch second base since the ball was dead. Orioles' third base coach Tom Trebelhorn asked the third base umpire about the possibility of Mora returning to second before the Red Sox appealed the missed base. The ump nixed the idea immediately.