(06-28-2017 09:49 PM)texd Wrote:  

(06-28-2017 08:08 AM)grol Wrote:  I was surprised to hear Kyle P say that the rule about sliding into second had changed. It used to be that you couldn't slide past the bag, but now you can? The way I remember the rule you have to slide directly into the bag and not slide past. When did that change?

Probably about the time teams started replacing infield dirt with fieldturf. Runners seem to slide forever on that stuff.

It appears to have changed for the 2007 season. Here's an explanation from the "Baseball 2007" supplement to the NCAA Baseball Rules prepared by the editors of Referee magazine:

Quote:The defensive player will no longer be able to stand on the base in an attempt to draw interference via the force-play slide rule in what is the most significant of the NCAA baseball rule changes for the 2007 season.

With the change, the runner will now be allowed to slide directly into and past the base on a force play, which means defensive players will no longer be able to stand on or behind the bag to make a throw and remain protected.

Runners will still be required to slide before the base in a direct line between the two bases, but they will no longer be required to stop on the bag. Contact with the fielder will be legal (and interference shall not be called) if a runner makes a legal slide into the base and contacts the fielder

Additionally, contact with the fielder or altering the play is no longer required if the runner attempts a cross-body or rolling slide. Those slides are now illegal and will result in an interference call. Runners are now allowed to execute a “popup” slide on the bag.

The force-play slide rule was created as a safety rule to protect the fielder, but Gary Vaught, the coach at the University of Indianapolis and chair of the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee, said the rule will now also protect the safety of the offensive player.

“Our number-one goal is to protect the athlete,” Vaught said. “We didn’t feel we had done a good enough job to protect the runner. How do you tell a person to stop right at the top of the bag?

“Momentum will take you through the bag. We’re just letting (the runner) slide through the bag. It clears up the rule.”

Vaught mentioned that several coaches were teaching fielders to hold the bag while turning a double play in order to draw the interference call.

“What (the change) is going to do is make coaches teach the proper way of turning double plays,” Vaught said. “There are coaches teaching (how to draw interference), and that’s not the intent of the rule. It is to protect the players. We’ve given a lane for the runner to slide through.”

The final tweak to the rule was that contact is required or the play must be altered when the runner runs or slides in the direction of the fielder in order for interference to be called.

Vaught also stressed that the changes were not meant to soften the enforcement of the rule. He stated his committee gets several proposals each year to abolish the rule, but said safety of players far outweighs the cry of “old-school” coaches and players who want the game played the way professionals do.

“We still expect the rule to be called,” Vaught said. “We are still 100 percent against illegal slides and the cleat coming up and slides that are made with the intent of going after the fielder.” ...

In 2009, a diagram was added to show the lane for runners (which extended beyond the base) and the areas to each side in which the fielder was "protected."