Re: _Tie goes to Runner or Fie_, Paige Miller wrote to Terry May on 09 Oct 
:
 PM> The rules don't specifically say what happens when it is a tie.
Maybe not specifically, but they DO say what happens when there is a tie 
(compliments of Mark Yoder):
7.08(e)  (Any runner is out when) "He fails to reach the next base before a 
fielder tags him or the base, after he has been forced to advance by reason 
of the batter becoming a runner.  However, if a following runner is put out 
on a force play, the force is removed and the runner must be tagged to be put 
out. ."
That makes it very clear that the runner is out if he fails to reach the base 
BEFORE the fielder, so a tie clearly goes to the fielder.
 PM> Nevertheless, humans can't judge thousandths of a second. If the play
 PM> is really "too close", most umpires will call the runner out. Here's
 PM> the reason (at least for an ordinary play at first): the umpire will
 PM> listen for the sound of the ball hitting the glove and watch for the
 PM> position of the runner's foot. If both stimuli arrive at the same time,
 PM> then this is an out. Why? Because sound travels slower than light. And
 PM> so, as Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi would tell you, that means that
 PM> the sound occurred first.
That's fine if the umpire was a mile away.  At just a few feet away, there's 
no way he can distinguish between the speed of sound and light.  If the sound 
came at the same time as the runner, then it was virtually a tie, and the 
runner should be called out.  Not because of physics, but because of rule 
7.08(e).
...  Cy Young Ballot:  [x] John Smoltz  [ ] Kevin Brown  [ ] Greg Maddux
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