Baseball Rule Quiz

Baseball Rule Quiz - Do you know the answer?

It's the bottom of the 9^th inning in a tie game with two outs and runners on first and third. The batter hits a single to center field and the runner on third crosses the plate. The runner on first, who is halfway to second, sees the run score, shouts "We won" and heads for the dugout. Did the home team win?

YES NO

If you said "Yes" you're wrong.

In baseball and softball, all forces must first be removed before anything else counts. In this case, there were two forced runners - the batter was forced to first base and the runner on first base was forced to second, and the force is only removed when both of them touch their bases. Since the runner on first base never did touch second base, the force was not removed and the run did not count.

Now, scroll down and you can read more about this rule.

The most famous application of this rule cost the New York Giants the National League pennant in 1908, and allowed the Chicago Cubs to win it instead. The Giants and Cubs were tied for first place in the National League and were playing the last scheduled game of the season in New York. Fred Merkle of the Giants was the runner on first base who never touched second. Johnny Evers (of the famous double-play combination, Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance) was playing second base for the Cubs. He had argued this exact situation a few weeks earlier when the umpire had called it incorrectly. This time he retrieved the ball (one account says that he had to fight to get it back from a New York fan who took the ball as a souvenir after coming on the field, thinking the game was over) and jumped up and down on second base until the umpire acknowledged the out. The game could not be continued into extra innings because of the mob of fans on the field so a tie was declared and a makeup game was scheduled. The Cubs won the makeup game, winning the National League pennant and then went on to win the World Series against the Detroit Tigers, their last World Series win to this day.

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Last update: 11/01/06