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April 11

Baseball

A BATTER HITS A GROUND BALL TO SHORTSTOP HE THROWS THE BALL TO FIRST BASE THE FIRST BASEMAN TRAPS THE BALL ON THE GROUND WITH HIS BARE HAND ON TOP OF THE BALL AND HIS LEFT FOOT ON THE BAG IS THE RUNNER OUT OR SAFE ? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.19.163.49 (talk) 01:19, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I DONT KNOW I ALSO DONT CARE IS YOUR CAPS LOCK STUCK IS THE KEY TO THE LEFT OF THE QUESTION MARK KEY BROKEN? —Tamfang (talk) 01:32, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've added a heading to your question. And the answer depends on whether the first baseman had the ball before or after the runner reached first base. Dismas|^(talk) 01:43, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The runner is safe. Rule 2.00 states that a "tag" is defined as "is the action of a fielder in touching a base with his body while holding the ball securely and firmly in his hand or glove; or touching a runner with the ball, or with his hand or glove holding the ball, while holding the ball securely and firmly in his hand or glove." Notice how many times it states "ball securely and firmly in his hand or glove". If the ball is touching the ground, it is NOT "securely and firmly in his hand or glove." Official rules of MLB found here. --Jayron32 02:05, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I think it would be up to the umpire's judgment as to whether the first baseman was holding the ball securely. If he's merely pressing down on it, the call would more likely be "safe". If he has his fingers wrapped around it, the call would more likely be "out". Having said that, I'm trying to imagine such a scenario even arising. It's going to be a hard throw, and a fielder's natural instinct is to try to catch a hard hit or hard thrown ball with his glove. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 10:25, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Well, it is always up to umpires judgement, but by the rules if the umpire judged the ball to be holding the ball as described by the OP, with the ball on the ground with his bare hand on top of it that seems to unambiguously NOT be securly and firmly in the hand. Judging by typical practice in an analogous play, another time that the phrase "securely and firmly in is hand or glove" occurs in the rules is in the Rule 2.00 definition of a catch, and in order to be adjudged a catch for the purpose of putting a player out, the ball cannot have touched the ground before it is secure and firm in the hand or glove. Even if the contact with the ground occurs simultaneous with the catch, it is usually ruled a non-catch. In this situation, if the batter-runner reaches first base before the firstbasemen secures the ball in his hand or glove, he's safe. --Jayron32 14:37, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes. The difference is that it's a thrown ball rather than a fly ball. And I'll grant that in a situation like the OP describes, it is most likely that the umpire would judge the first baseman to not be fully controlling the ball. However, there's no acounting for umpire's judgment. There's the-perfect-game-that-wasn't, last year. There's the-tag-that-wasn't in the 1970 World Series. And maybe you've heard about the Cubs-Cardinals game in 1959 or so, when an umpire managed to put an extra ball into play. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:49, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Well, obviously, there's the fact that umpires are human, and make calls which turn out to be the wrong call where that call affects the game. That doesn't represent a fundemental difference in how the rules are supposed to work. This is true of every official in every sport; whether a football ref makes a phantom "roughing the passer" call that decides a playoff game, or a basketball ref misses a blatant foul, or a missed handball that everyone saw except the officials on the field. That the umpire screws up, and the game is changed by it, doesn't make the rules any different. I'm fairly confident that if the umpire did call the player above "out", it would be soundly denounced as the wrong call from the top down. The correct call is that the runner is safe; and if an umpire screws up, that doesn't change what the call should be. --Jayron32 15:30, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If the player does not have the ball fully in control, then the runner should be called safe, yes. And hopefully the ump will get the call right. I just wonder if this type of situation has ever actually arisen. It does not sound familiar, but in baseball most anything can happen at least once. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 15:41, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Death of Peter Christopherson

Musician Peter Christopherson of Throbbing Gristle and Coil died last year at his home in Thailand. He was 55. I'm trying to establish the cause of death but cannot find any information on this. All the news reports and every online source I've looked at just state that he died in his sleep without mentioning the actual cause. So can anyone find any more information? I'm wondering if a death certificate – which would presumably state the cause – is a public document in Thailand. Thanks. --Viennese Waltz 12:27, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'd caution against putting too much weight on what a death certificate says. If there's no autopsy performed, the cause of death listed there is little more than a guess. (And even with an autopsy, they might just find the first thing which might be the cause, like signs of heart disease, and not bother to determine if that was the true cause of death.) StuRat (talk) 18:49, 15 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Narrator in Let's Make Love

Disregard

– I have the DVD coming in, I'll be able to watch the whole thing finally. – Kerαunoςcopia^◁_galaxies 19:22, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

At the very beginning of Let's Make Love, a man is narrating the story of a family's lineage. I'm trying to find the name behind that voice. The credits at IMDb are locked as "Verified as complete" (one of IMDb's many unimpressive little peculiarities), but I don't see any narrator listed. The voice, to me, sounds absolutely like Richard Haydn's. Unfortunately, I can't find an online clip of the intro of this movie. Would anyone know who the narrator may be? Thank you. – Kerαunoςcopia^◁_galaxies 14:10, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Canadiens vs Leafs: Head-to-Head

I was wondering what the win/loss stats are for the Montreal Canadiens vs. the Toronto Maple Leafs, going head-to-head, since the last time the Leafs have won the Stanley Cup, 1967? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.28.86.188 (talk) 20:34, 11 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Using hockey-reference.com, here are the season stats:

67-68 3-5-2

68-69 3-4-1

69-70 1-4-3

70-71 4-2

71-72 1-4-1

72-73 0-5-1

73-74 3-2

74-75 2-1-2

75-76 1-3-1

76-77 1-2-2

77-78 0-4-1 (playoffs semi-finals 0-4)

78-79 0-3-1 (playoffs quarter-finals 0-4)

79-80 1-3

80-81 1-3

81-82 0-2-1

82-83 1-0-2

83-84 1-2

84-85 3-0

85-86 1-2

86-87 1-2

87-88 0-3

88-89 1-2

89-90 1-2

90-91 1-1-1

91-92 1-2

92-93 2-0

93-94 0-2

94-95 lockout, didn't play each other

95-96 0-2

96-97 1-1

97-98 1-1

98-99 2-3

99-00 4-1

00-01 4-1

01-02 2-3

02-03 3-1-1

03-04 4-2

04-05 lockout

05-06 4-4

06-07 4-4

07-08 4-4

08-09 3-3

09-10 3-3

10-11 3-3

Thus, if I've added correctly, the Leafs are 76-101-20, plus 0-8 in the playoffs. (They should have beat the Canadiens in the Cup finals in 1993 of course, but, well, you know.) Adam Bishop (talk) 14:03, 12 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]