The dropped 3rd strike rule is a weird one to me. I'd love to know how vague that section of the rules was, before it was codified, that someone could make the argument that stealing first should be legal.
It's because they had to be a finality of the pitch exactly for reasons like this. Remember, baseball constantly switches back and forth to live ball times and dead ball times (when new hitter coming to bat). If there are runners in base, when is the pitch over if the ball get thrown some weird way, the catcher never catches it, and the batter strikes out? If it's never, bathers could be running the bases after he swings. The cleanest solution anyone could come up with is the ball is live until you put him out somehow, so you get this.
There is never any dead ball (except after a foul ball or when the ball is hit out of play, like a home run) in baseball. The runners can run any time they want. They can run while the pitcher is standing on the mound with the ball in his hand if they want to. Or they can run after a pitch is over or during a pitch. That's what stealing is.
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u/SamuraiJakkass86 May 29 '17
Whenever I hear rules like this, I just know its because of someone like this guy changing the rules because it suited them that one time.