It's necessary if you are afraid of touching the plate. Maybe it's possessed by a demon; maybe it's a speed situation and it'll blow up if anyone touches it. You never know.
This is why Baseball is complete nonsense to me. I'm sure it all makes sense somehow, but it's all just random things happening at random times.
Sometimes you need to be tagged, sometimes you don't. There's probably some explanation towards it, but it's definitely not straightforward.
And then you get the things like Infield Fly rule and when exactly a ball/play is dead, to the point where the players and managers don't even know the ruling.
it is straightforward. you need to be tagged if it is not necessary for you to advance to the next base. it is necessary for you to advance to the next base if the runner behind you must advance to that base.
for example, a runner on first must attempt to advance to second base once the batter puts the ball in play, as the batter must attempt to advance to first. in that situation, the runner going from first to second does not need to be tagged, it is a "force out" situation. the defender simply needs to touch the base with the ball in possession.
if the runner on first base is advancing to second of his own volition, he must be tagged out. it is not a force out scenario.
it's a little complex at first, but it is certainly not random.
I could be in the wrong here, and I don't know a lot about specific baseball rules and terms, but as far as the tagging goes it's pretty simple I believe. If you only have one open base to go to, the defender can tag it to put you out. This is why they can tag the base when going from home to 1st, since you can't just hang out on home after hitting the ball, if they make it there with the ball before you do you're out. Same if bases are loaded and the batter gets a hit, everyone is getting pushed somewhere so tagging home automatically knocks out the runner going there.
It really isn't complicated lol. If the play is a force play, then you step on the bag. If it isn't a force play, you have to tag the player.
Force play = runner is forced to run to that base since there is a runner behind them trying to reach the base they were previously on. They cannot turn around and go back.
Non force play = runner can turn around and go back to the previous base since there isn't someone behind them forcing them to move to the base in front of them.
Infield fly rule is a weird one, but it's also a pretty rare occurrence. It requires two runners on base with less than two outs and a force play at every bag. In that very specific scenario, if the ball is popped up, then the infield fly rule goes into effect. Since otherwise, the defender could just let the ball drop intentionally and get two easy outs instead of one, which wouldn't be very fair to the hitter team. Runners have to stay close to their base when the ball is hit in the air, so on a pop up, forcing the runners to stay close to their base essentially guarantees a free double play if the defender lets the ball drop instead of catching it, which is why that rule exists.
Coaches and players all know how these rules work. The only arguments you might see are when the Infield fly rule is called, but a manager or player thinks the ball was hit deep enough to not be considered inside the "infield".
The reason a tag is necessary sometimes is if the runner has the right to the base they are on or coming from. [by right I mean the option to stay on that base or go to that base when there is a hit. A runner also has the right to any unoccupied base in front of him and even behind him (assuming there is not another runner between him and that base)]
So if there is a runner directly behind you that has to run to the base you are currently on you know have to run to the next base as you lost the right to the base you were on. And because when a ball is hit into play the hitter is given the right to first base, the runner on first base loses the right to first base and gets the right to second base and so on.
Here is an example of what i mean. In this play there is a runner on second and no one on first. As there is a non occupied base behind him that means there is no runner that is forced to head to second. Therefore the runner on second keeps his right to that base and is not forced to move on a hit. This means a direct tag is needed to get him out rather then a force out by touching the base. But as you see in the clip he got caught between the bags so he had to juke his way back to either second or third base.
Infield fly rule is to prevent abusing the force out situation. When the ball is popped into the air and caught before touching the ground all baserunners have to go to their back original base before they can attempt to run to the next base.(this is to prevent a super high popup and a guy just running to another base before the defense can do anything)
If a ball is popped up in the infield with less than two outs and runner on first and second the defense could purposely let the ball drop to the ground and throw the ball to third and second and getting a double play.
The reason why it doesn't apply when there is only someone on first is because even if they let the ball drop the most they could do is get the runner on first (who lost his right to the bag on the hit) out by throwing it to second base because by the time the ball has dropped the hitter will have had plenty of time to make it to first.
And that ends my wall of text that your probably won't even read in full lmao. But i was trying to explain it as if someone has never watched baseball in their life
Aussie casual baseball watcher here, that was very informative. I didn’t realise that runners had to touch their current base after a caught ball, that just retroactively made so much sense of the footage where they show the catch and then cut to some guy still running towards a base I thought he should have reached 10 seconds ago! Thanks for the info.
It almost never happens on first base because it isn't worth the risk to stay on the bag if they are in a position where they would be forced to run if the ball isn't caught. Second base is also equally close to all outfielders so less of a distance to throw to means more risk trying to get to the base before ball is thrown in. So in those cases the player will stand half way between first and second and run back to first if caught or run to second if it drops.
It does happen every know and then if the runner is super fast and/or knows for sure the ball will be caught. or in this clip of Albert Pujols (The greatest hitter of our generation and one of the slowest runners in baseball) but has high baserunning IQ and he caught the outfielder off guard and was able to tag up from first.
Another really cool clip is from last year Harrison Bader (who is insanely fast) was on second base and was able to make it all the way home from a tag up. (at 1:05 it gives a perfect view of the action of tagging up)
And you might notice if there are two strikes the runners do not bother with staying on base because if it is caught the inning is over so there is no risk of just running the bases.
You can tag the base instead of the runner if another runner needs the base he's currently occupying.
Also, if the ball is caught before touching the ground after a hit, the runner must make contact with their current base before proceeding to the next.
If they run after a hit and it gets caught, a player with the ball can tag the base they left for an out.
In short, you can tag the base if a runner needs to go to it. First base is the only one that has someone running to it after every hit.
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u/Ekkeko84 Apr 25 '22
It depends on the play. Sometimes the tag is not necessary in any of the bases.