One Pitch Strikeout by Minor Leaguer Vinnie Catricala Brings Up Rarely Used Rule (VIDEO)
When singing along to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game," it is easy to remember the lyrics "One, two, three strikes your out, in the old ball game," but this weekend one strike was all that was needed for a minor leaguer.
Vinnie Catricala, a minor league third basemen for the Oakland Athletics Double-A farm team, the Midland Rock Hounds, was called out on strikes after one pitch was thrown, and then promptly ejected from the ball game.
There is a rule in baseball stating if a batter takes an unreasonable amount of time outside of the batters box, a strike will be called. The official ruling according to Rule 6.02 is:
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"If the batter refuses to take his position in the batter's box during his time at bat, the umpire shall call a strike on the batter. The ball is dead, and no runners may advance. After the penalty, the batter may take his proper position and the regular ball and strike count shall continue. If the batter does not take his proper position before three strikes have been called, the batter shall be declared out."
"Comment: The umpire shall give the batter a reasonable opportunity to take his proper position in the batter's box after the umpire has called a strike pursuant to Rule 6.02(c) and before the umpire calls a successive strike pursuant to Rule 6.02(c)."
After a borderline strike call thrown by pitcher Nick Tropean of the Corpus Christi Hooks, Houston Astros farm team, Catricala questioned umpire Ron Teague's call, and then stepped out of the box.
Teague told the batter to step back into the box, and when Catricala did not, he called strike two. It is unclear whether the third basemen heard the second strike call, but when the umpire asked him to once again step in the box, the batter did not – strike three.
Once the third strike was called, Catricala turned around and said a few choice words to the umpire which immediately got him tossed from the game.
According to Crawfish Boxes, the entire ordeal took 9.4 seconds, and 3.9 seconds after Catricala stepped out of the box was strike two called.
The question that remains to be seen is whether ample time was given for the batter to step back in the box.
