-=> Terry May took a called strike three for saying to All <=- 
 TM> I'm sure many of you will recall this subject we discussed a few
 TM> months ago. It was shown that the phrase, "tie goes to the runner," was
 TM> a myth.  A rule was quoted which showed the runner must beat the throw
 TM> on a force play, not the other way around.
 TM> Well, I brought this up in Usenet's rec.sport.baseball and was shown a
 TM> rule that seems to suggest that the tie does indeed go to the runner:
 TM> 6.05 A batter is out when:
 TM> .....
 TM> j. After a third strike or after he hits a fair ball, he or first
 TM> base is tagged before he touches first base;
 TM> My thinking is that this only shows one way ("j.") a batter can be
 TM> out, and it doesn't say that if this doesn't happen, the batter is
 TM> safe.  And there is another rule that leaves no doubt in the case of a
 TM> tie.  
 TM> So what's the deal?  Would someone please post the rule again that
 TM> says the batter is out if he doesn't reach first base before the base
 TM> is tagged? 
The rules don't specifically say what happens when it is a tie. A tie
would be an interesting phenomenon from a physical science point of view,
because I would think that one event or the other has to happen first,
even if the difference in timing is thousandths of a second.
Nevertheless, humans can't judge thousandths of a second. If the play is
really "too close", most umpires will call the runner out. Here's
the reason (at least for an ordinary play at first): the umpire will
listen for the sound of the ball hitting the glove and watch for the
position of the runner's foot. If both stimuli arrive at the same time,
then this is an out. Why? Because sound travels slower than light. And so,
as Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi would tell you, that means that the
sound occurred first.
... Line noise provided by Rochester Telephone!
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