The very first sentence of Rule 4.09 is the simplest of the entire subsection: "One run shall be scored each time a runner legally advances to and touches first, second, third and home base before three men are put out to end the inning." Simple, right?
Well, not if you forget to touch one of the bases.
This week, Raul Mondesi, Jr.—yes, that Mondesi—stepped up to the plate with his Helena Brewers in the bottom of the 10th inning. When Missoula Osprey pitcher Dexter Price left a 0-1 curveball over the heart of the plate, Mondesi smacked it into the outfield bleachers for an apparent game-tying home run.
Only he forgot to touch one important piece of the field—he missed home plate entirely.
Under the confines of Rule 7.10(d), "Any runner shall be called out, on appeal, when ... He fails to touch home base and makes no attempt to return to that base, and home base is tagged."
Sure enough and after some bumbling about proper appeal procedures (remember, ball has to be live; after a HR it is not), Osprey catcher Michael Perez called for the newly distributed baseball and stepped on home plate to appeal. After looking into the Helene dugout and finding Mondesi, HP Umpire Blake Mickelson signaled, "out," effectively ending the game with the tying run wiped off the board.
For his part, Helena manager Jeff Isom reluctantly believed Mickelson's version of events—not to mention instant replay and video evidence: "On any home run, the umpire has one job and that's to watch the plate and make sure the runners touch it. He said [Mondesi] missed it by eight inches."
Fred Merkle, is that you? As George Santayana wrote way back in 1924, "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." Well, as long as the umpire is doing his "one job," that is.
Article: Raul Mondesi, Jr. Misses Home Plate, Recalls Memories of Merkle's Mistake [b/r]
Video: Game Ends as Mondesi Forgets to Touch Home Plate After Game-Tying Home Run [ds]
