[jtur88]

(Again, I'm posting this in two places, because there is no subcategory that it naturally fits into.)

Here's one that just occured to me.
Say the batter grounds in the infield, and the wild over-throw to first is touched by a spectator. But the batter missed first base, and went on to slide safely into second. Is he out on appeal for missing first? Or is he, on the overthrow and fan interference, entitled to at least first base, being one base after the last base he reached safely, interpreted as home while the batter? If the ball was dead as soon as it was touched by a fan, his act of stepping on second occurred during a dead ball, and is not relevant to missing first, right? If the umpire awards the bases after the interference, can missing first be appealed if the umpire has already awarded him second? Or must the umpire observe that first base was missed in making his award, without an appeal having been made by the defense?

In short, if a runner retouches a base that a following runner has already touched, and the following runner is not retreating or cannot retreat to a previous base, is that "passing a runner"?

Ned Yost came out and talked to the umpire, and may have been asking for Ethier to be called out, but did not make his case very forcefullly. Again, I'm not sure if Kemp actually retouched first.