Mo's Marketplace | When Is A Home Run a Scoring Play?

Friday, May 02, 2008

When Is A Home Run a Scoring Play?

 

Baseball is one of the few games in which points aren’t scored with the ball. In basketball, football, soccer, golf points are scored by putting the ball in a specified place – there’s no hoop, end zone, goal, hole. Baseball is different: points (“runs”) are scored by a base runner. 

 

This leads to the question, “what of the home run?” You know, when the baseball is hit by a batsman over the outfield wall and all base runners and the batsman score. What is a home run?

 

“Home run” isn’t defined in the Major League Baseball Official Rules’ “definition of terms” (PDF link), however “Run” is: the score made by an offensive player who advances from batter to runner and touches first, second, third and home bases in that order.  (A batter being “an offensive player who takes his position in the batter’s box” and a runner being “an offensive player who is advancing toward, or touching, or

returning to any base.”) A “home run” is defined elsewhere in the rules that expresses a home run happens when “a fair ball passes over a fence or into the stands at a distance from home base of 250 feet or more. Such hit entitles the batter to a home run when he shall have touched all bases legally.” [emphasis added] 

 

Specific to the definition of “run” or “score” here is the physical act of the base runner touching the bases and crossing home plate. So when a Manny Ramirez hits a towering home run over the wall at Fenway, it is in the fabric of the game – in the essence of the game – that he MUST touch the bases because the run does not score with the ball clearing the wall, the runs scores when the runner touches home.  


This is why, when Manny hits this home run, he still has to run the bases for his run to score. 

As an aside, into the 1920's, Manny wouldn't have scored the run - the rule was that the batter would get credit for a hit for only as many bases as was necessary to "force" the winning run home, so in the instance above - he wouldn't have been credited with a home run and the game would have ended at 4-3, not 6-3.

Posted by Mo at 9:56:35 PM in Baseball (72) | Comments (4)

Comments

1. GenerationXpert said...

I've been looking around your blog. I see you are not a fan of New York. How do you feel about Detroit?

5/3/2008

2. Mo said...

I'm a tried and true, dyed in the wool Red Sox fan. I really don't like NY teams, Detroit I have no such issues. I just can't help myself - I just can't like NY teams. Love the city, hate the teams. :)

I remember when I was a kid, there was this bumpersticker, "I [heart] NY, It's the Yankees I hate" That sums it up nicely.

Thanks for coming by!

5/3/2008

3. Jenny said...

Why is it that the coach's for baseball wear the uniforms. This doesn't happen in other pro sports. Do they think they might have to step in?? Just wondering.

Go Brewers.

5/3/2008

4. Mo said...

Hi Jenny:
I think you will find the answer at http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/muniform.html, but I believe at this point it is definitely a rule.

5/3/2008

Name
URL (remember "http://" or your link will be broken)
Email
Email address is not published - it's not required, but I probably won't approve your comment without it
Remember Me
Comments

CAPTCHA
Write the characters in the image above